Quotes about wording
page 88

“My method is to find a word with a gesture.”

Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914) German author

“Often I am struck in amazement about a word: I suddenly realize that the complete arbitrariness of our language is but a part of the arbitrariness of our own world in general.”

Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914) German author

World, Parting

“Enthusiasm is the most beautiful word on earth.”

Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914) German author

Beauty

“The word “depressed“ is spoken phonetically as “deep rest“. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, you’re just recharging.”

Ralph Smart

“Your thoughts and words create everything.”

Ralph Smart

“Become conscious of your words. Only speak what you want into existence.”

Ralph Smart

“A person’s energy can tell you more about them than their own words.”

Ralph Smart

Personality

“People who do not understand your silence will never understand your words.”

Ralph Smart

Silence, People, Understanding

“We have been raised in a primitive society that thinks of destiny in these terms: What SHOULD I do with my life? It is time that we graduate to higher understanding. The higher understanding is that "should" is not a concept which exists within this universe. Your destiny is instead encoded in these words: What do I WANT to do with my life? What fills me with PASSION? What causes me to feel JOY? Answer these questions for yourself and you've started on the path of your destiny.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

instagram

Time, Understanding, Question, Universe

“In the beginning of Time, the great Creator Reason, made the Earth to be a Common Treasury, to preserve Beasts, Birds, Fishes, and Man, the lord that was to govern this Creation; for Man had Domination given to him, over the Beasts, Birds, and Fishes; but not one word was spoken in the beginning, That one branch of mankind should rule over another.”

Gerrard Winstanley (1609–1676) English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, and activist

The True Levellers Standard Advanced (1649)

Fish, Bird, Time

“In the present state of society it appears necessary to go back to first principles in search of the most simple truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice every inch of ground. To clear my way, I must be allowed to ask some plain questions, and the answers will probably appear as unequivocal as the axioms on which reasoning is built; though, when entangled with various motives of action, they are formally contradicted either by the words or conduct of men.”

Mary Wollstonecraft book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Source: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Ch. 1, opening

Search, Question, Truth, Appearance

“Islamophobia: a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Andrew Cummins (@Vodkaninja), Twitter, December 4 2013. Screen capture https://homoeconomicusnet.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/did-christopher-hitchens-say-that-on-islamophobia-or-someone-on-twitter/. Misattributed

“Its highest degree of eloquence, which is beyond the capacity of a human being. However, since we come after the first Arabs we are unable to reach its essence. But the measure which we know is that the employment of lucid words and sweet constructions gracefully and without affectation that we find in the Tremendous Qur’an is to be found nowhere else in any of the poetry of the earlier or later peoples.”

Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703–1762) Indian muslim scholar

in Waliyyullāh, S. (2014) Al-Fawz al-Kabīr fī Uṣūl at-Tafsīr. The Great Victory on Qur’ānic Hermeneutics: A Manual of the Principles and Subtleties of Qur’anic Tafsīr. Translated, Introduction and Annotated by Tahir Mahmood Kiani. London: Taha, p.160.

People

“We have sought to make use of the full possibilities of the English language without the pretext of wanting to be so up-to-date in word usages that our rendition would soon become out-of-date. We have also sought to be as eloquent as possible, in an effort to reflect something of the inimitable eloquence of Quranic Arabic.”

Seyyed Hossein Nasr book The Study Quran

On the Study Qur'an (2015). "Introduction". The Study Quran. HarperOne.

Making love, Effort

“If there is a single reason why Narendra Modi became the first prime minister in more than thirty years to get a full mandate from the people of India it was because he was the only one who understood how urgently people wanted change. The word he used most in his election speeches was the word for change in Hindi. And every time he said parivartan his audience would roar its approval. During the election campaign I came to understand that it was more important than anything else he could promise on a hot, stifling evening in Pappu’s chai shop in Benares.”

Tavleen Singh (1950) Indian journalist

Singh, T. (2016). India's broken tryst. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India : HarperCollins Publishers India, 2016.

Time, People, Understanding, Change

“Orthon ceased speaking and for a moment I sat with bowed head thinking of his words. Slowly, I became aware of a warmth that seemed to be entering into my spirit. Looking up, I saw from the faces of those around me that what I felt was a benediction that flowed from all of them toward me.”

George Adamski (1891–1965) American ufologist

Inside the Spaceships

Thinking

“It is the purpose of this book to find out just what that something could be the authorities do not wish us to know... The following chapters will present the findings as they came. A word in passing, and a warning. This book is neither intended for, nor humbly dedicated to, the statistician, nor anyone else who mistakes figures for facts, nor does it aim to please the followers of what is called Popular Science...”

George Adamski (1891–1965) American ufologist

Flying Saucers Have Landed

Science, Books

“The cast of mind which is natural to a discreet man, make him look forward into futurity, and consider what will be his condition millions of ages hence, as well as what it is at present. He knows that the misery or happiness which are reserved for him in another world, lose nothing of their reality by being placed at so great a distance from him. The objects do not appear little to him because they are remote. He considers that those pleasures and pains which lie hid in eternity, approach nearer to him every moment, and will be present with him in their full weight and measure, as much as those pains and pleasures which he feels at this very instant. For this reason he is careful to secure to himself that which is the proper happiness of his nature, and the ultimate design of his being. He carries his thoughts to the end of every action, and considers the most distant as well as the most immediate effects of it. He supersedes every little prospect of gain and advantage which offers itself here, if he does not find it consistent with his views of an hereafter. In a word, his hopes are full of immortality, his schemes are large and glorious, and his conduct suitable to one who knows his true interest, and how to pursue it by proper methods.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 225
The Tatler (1711–1714)

Pain, Future, Hope, Nature

“I have somewhere met with the epitaph of a charitable man, which has very much pleased me. I cannot recollect the words, but the sense of it is to this purpose; What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 177 (22 September 1711)
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Sense

“Peace we all desire. Peace can only come—peace, I mean, that is worth the name and that satisfies the definition of the word—peace will only come on terms that atonement is made for past wrongs, that the weak and downtrodden are restored, that the faith of treaties is observed, and that the sovereignty of public law is securely enthroned over the nations of the world.”

H. H. Asquith (1852–1928) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1916-12-19/debates/8572103d-700a-487a-8dd1-c0a99679cc6d/PrimeMinisterSStatement in the House of Commons (19 December 1916) Later life

Peace, Faith, Law, Past

“Protestantism made the West not only work, but also save and read. The Industrial Revolution was indeed a product of technological innovation and consumption. But it also required an increase in the intensity and duration of work, combined with the accumulation of capital through saving and investment. Above all, it depended on the accumulation of human capital. The literacy that Protestantism promoted was vital to all of this. On reflection, we would do better to talk about the Protestant word ethic.”

Niall Ferguson book Civilization: The West and the Rest

Civilization: The West and the Rest (2011)

Reading, Dependency

“The fatal blot in Islam is the degradation of women. ... The Muslim soldier was allowed to do as he pleased with any infidel woman he might meet with on his victorious march. When one thinks of the thousands of women, mothers and daughters, who must have suffered untold shame and dishonour by this license, he cannot find words to express his horror, And this cruel indulgence has left its mark on the Muslim character.”

Stanley Lane-Poole (1854–1931) British orientalist

Selections from the Kur-an, 2nd ed., Preface.

Victory, Suffering, Daughters, Thinking

“For certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

A Joy for Ever, note 6 (1857)

Feeling

“In a word, human life is more governed by fortune than by reason; is to be regarded more as a dull pastime than as a serious occupation; and is more influenced by particular humour, than by general principles. Shall we engage ourselves in it with passion and anxiety? It is not worthy of so much concern. Shall we be indifferent about what happens? We lose all the pleasure of the game by our phlegm and carelessness. While we are reasoning concerning life, life is gone; and death, though perhaps they receive him differently, yet treats alike the fool and the philosopher.”

David Hume book Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary

Part I, Essay 18: The Sceptic
Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary (1741-2; 1748)

Indifference, Game, Fools, Pleasure

“The single statement, the brief formula, the few words of which replace in our minds a wide range of relationships between isolated phenomena, is what we term a scientific law. Such a law, relieving our memory from the burden of individual sequences, enables us, with the minimum of intellectual fatigue, to grasp a vast complexity of natural or social phenomena. The discovery of law is... the peculiar function of the creative imagination. But this imagination has to be a disciplined one.”

Karl Pearson book The Grammar of Science

Introductory
The Grammar of Science (1900)

Imagination, Memory, Law, Nature

“Who can give us the assurance that the fields already occupied by science are alone those in which knowledge is possible? Who, in the words of Galilei, is willing to set limits to the human intellect?”

Karl Pearson book The Grammar of Science

Introductory
The Grammar of Science (1900)

Knowledge, Science

“To say that there are certain fields—for example, metaphysics—from which science is excluded, wherein its methods have no application, is merely to say that the rules of methodical observation and the laws of logical thought do not apply to the facts, if any, which lie within such fields. These fields, if indeed such exist, must lie outside any intelligible definition which can be given of the word knowledge.”

Karl Pearson book The Grammar of Science

Introductory
The Grammar of Science (1900)

Law, Intelligence, Knowledge, Lie

“Chance... the origin of the word itself is very possibly related to the falling of the dice from their box,—and certainly the first attempts at a theory of Chance arose from the general interest in gambling with dice.”

Karl Pearson (1857–1936) English mathematician and biometrician

"The Chances of Death" (1895)

Chance, Box, Relation ships

“Heredity. Given any organ in a parent and the same or any other organ in its offspring, the mathematical measure of heredity is the correlation of these organs for pairs of parent and offspring... The word organ here must be taken to include any characteristic which can be quantitatively measured.”

Karl Pearson (1857–1936) English mathematician and biometrician

"Mathematical Contributions to the Theory of Evolution III: Regression, Heredity and Panmixia", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series A, Vol. 187 (1896) p. 259.

Mathematics, Parent

“Resist is the word applied to the unconverted. Grieve is that applied to the individual Christian. Quench is that which has reference to the saints when gathered together waiting on the Spirit.”

William Paton Mackay (1839–1885) Scottish clergyman

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 319.

Waiting

“You’ve got some folks out here who know a lot of four letter words. But there are two four-letter words they don’t know. W-O-R-K and S-O-A-P, you don’t know those two letter words I’ll tell you that much.”

George Wallace (1919–1998) 45th Governor of Alabama

18th October 1968
1960s
Source: https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/flatview?cuecard=34499

“She half expected, despite her brave words, to come out upon the storied and familiar red-hot pave of hell, and this pleasant, starlit land surprised her and made her wary. The things that built the tunnel could not have been human. She had no right to expect men here. She was a little stunned by finding open sky so far underground, though she was intelligent enough to realize that however she had come, she was not underground now. No cavity in the earth could contain this starry sky.”

C. L. Moore (1911–1987) American author

Black God's Kiss (1934); p. 16
Short fiction, Jirel of Joiry (1969)

Hell, Intelligence, Men

“Verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.”

Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) American evangelist and publisher

My friend, that is worth more than all the feeling you can have in a life-time.
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 244

Life, Death

“Just thought and thought! Poor artist of the word!High priest of thought! You cannot flee;The word holds all: the world and man,Death, life, and ever-unveiled truth.”

Evgeny Baratynsky (1800–1844) Russian poet

1840 From the Ends to the Beginning: A Bilingual Anthology of Russian Poetry, http://max.mmlc.northwestern.edu/mdenner/Demo/texts/thoughts_more_thoughts.html Northwestern University (2001)

World, Truth, Life, Death

“It is for the Indian patriot to recognise that Persia, Afghanistan and possibly Arabia must sooner or later come within the orbit of some Continental Power — such as Germany, or what may grow out of the break up of Russia — or must throw in their lot with that of the Indian Empire, with which they have so much more genuine affinity. The world forces that move small States into closer contact with powerful neighbours, though so far most visible in Europe, will inevitably make themselves felt in Asia. Unless she is willing to accept the prospect of having powerful and possibly inimical neighbours to watch, and the heavy military burdens thereby entailed, India cannot afford to neglect to draw her Mahomedan neighbour States to herself by the ties of mutual interest and goodwill … In a word, the path of beneficent and growing union must be based on a federal India, with every member exercising her individual rights, her historic peculiarities and natural interests, yet protected by a common defensive system and customs union from external danger and economic exploitation by stronger forces. Such a federal India would promptly bring Ceylon to the bosom of her natural mother, and the further developments we have indicated would follow. We can build a great South Asiatic Federation by now laying the foundations wide and deep on justice, on liberty, and on recognition for every race, every religion, and every historical entity … A sincere policy of assisting both Persia and Afghanistan in the onward march which modem conditions demand, will raise two natural ramparts for India in the north-west that neither German nor Slav, Turk nor Mongol, can ever hope to destroy. They will be drawn of their own accord towards the Power which provides the object lesson of a healthy form of federalism in India, with real autonomy for each province, with the internal freedom of principalities assured, with a revived and liberalised kingdom of Hyderabad, including the Berars, under the Nizam. They would see in India freedom and order, autonomy and yet Imperial union, and would appreciate for themselves the advantages of a confederation assuring the continuance of internal self-government buttressed by goodwill, the immense and unlimited strength of that great Empire on which the sun never sets. The British position of Mesopotamia and Arabia also, whatever its nominal form may be, would be infinitely strengthened by the policy I have advocated.”

Aga Khan III (1877–1957) 48th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili community

India in Transition (1918)

Drawing, Religion, Justice, Freedom

“I have huge respect for short stories—I just find them much harder to get right than a novel. A novel is a lot baggier and it gives you more leeway to go on for too long or to make mistakes. Whereas in a short story, every sentence, every word, matters—and that’s very hard. I think it’s easier to write too much than it is to write exactly the right thing.”

Tracy Chevalier (1962) American writer

On how she compares short story writing to novel writing in “An Interview with Tracy Chevalier” https://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/an-interview-with-tracy-chevalier/ in Fiction Writers Review (2019 Sep 23)

Thinking, Making love

“First, a good sex scene is about the exchange of emotions, not body fluids. In other words, what’s going on physically is not really important. It’s what’s going on emotionally that’s important. You use the physical attributes or setting, only as a means of anchoring the reader in the moment, but it’s about what’s going on between these two people. And that leads to the second principle, which is that a good sex scene can only happen between two unique and specific people…”

Diana Gabaldon (1952) American author

On how she conjures an erotic scene in her writing in “Outlander Author Diana Gabaldon on Her Two Rules for Writing a Good Sex Scene” https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a24146013/outlander-diana-gabaldon-interview-great-american-read in Town and Country (2018 Oct 24)

Sex, People

“But the meaning of a word does not reside in this last, visible part.... Indeed, in this status, it is the cause of the world, jagannidanam, and is Brahman Itself.”

Ram Swarup (1920–1998) Indian historian

The World As Revelation: Names of Gods (1980)

World, Parting

“No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven and of the Gods of heaven, will be heard or believed.”

Apuleius (125–170) Berber prose writer in Latin

The Prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus

God

“Every word that a president utters projects American values around the world. The values of free expression and a reverence for the free press have been our global hallmark, for it is our ability to freely air the truth that keeps our government honest and keeps a people free. Between the mighty and the modest, truth is the great leveler. And so, respect for freedom of the press has always been one of our most important exports.”

Jeff Flake (1962) American politician

Farewell speech to the U.S. Senate (2018)

World, Truth, People, Freedom

“There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.”

Benedict of Nursia book Rule of Saint Benedict

Rule of Saint Benedict (516 AD), as edited by Timothy Fry, O. S. B (1981), p. 15

Silence, Time

“The Brotherhood of great seers and sages, united in a common purpose and governed by common ideals and esoteric knowledge, has existed as an association of high adepts under the direct inspiration and guidance of their hierarch, or mahaguru, for many millions of years — certainly for not less than twelve million; in other words, since the appearance on earth of the root-race which preceded our own present fifth root-race.”

Gottfried de Purucker (1874–1942) Author, Theosophist

Source: The Esoteric Tradition (1935), Chapter 22

Knowledge, Appearance

“Who are these guardians? They are those whom we call the elder brothers of the human race, and are men in all senses of the word and not excarnate spirits. They are, relatively speaking, fully evolved or perfected men, who have successfully run the evolutionary race and are therefore now in point of spiritual and intellectual grandeur where we shall be many ages hence.”

Gottfried de Purucker (1874–1942) Author, Theosophist

Source: The Esoteric Tradition (1935), Chapter 1

Sense, Perfection, Age, Men

“Words? Not really. Mankind is a good word.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

She set down her glass with a thump. “Or humankind. I’m afraid we’ve spent a lot of feminist energy on meaningless symbols rather than essential functions.”
Source: Gibbon's Decline & Fall (1996), Chapter 10, p. 170

“Books, words, were my most treasured escape. I lived inside stories, I breathed them. I felt like they made me more human, or a better human…”

Marjorie M. Liu (1979) American writer

On reading in “Marjorie Liu: Making a Monstress” https://www.guernicamag.com/making-a-monstress/ in Guernica (2016 Feb 15)

Books

“I often wish I was asked more about the craft of the verse. I spent so many agonizing hours ensuring every line break was precise, every word and repetition chosen with care—because it was important to me to maintain the integrity of the lyric while also advancing the narrative. It’s that tightrope walk I’m studying in other people’s work and am continuously looking to understand further.”

Elizabeth Acevedo American poet and author

On desiring to be asked about her writing style in interviews in “Meet National Book Award Finalist Elizabeth Acevedo” https://lithub.com/meet-national-book-award-finalist-elizabeth-acevedo/ in LitHub (2018 Oct 29)

Study, People, Understanding

“Within a short time after the alleged crucifixion of the Master Jesus - at any rate from the time when the Christian Scriptures began to have circulation in the Mediterranean world - and all through the Middle Ages and till nearly our own days, men quarreled and fought about the documents composing the Christian New Testament, not only with regard to just what these documents had to say, but about mere words and phrases, and also as regards their age, and as regards who wrote these various Christian Scriptures.”

Gottfried de Purucker (1874–1942) Author, Theosophist

Source: The Story of Jesus (1938), Chapter 1

World, Time, Age, Men

“It is a great mistake that the country can only be either a Dar-ul-Islam or a Dar-ul-Harb in the primary signification of the words, and that there is no intermediate position. A true Dar-ul-Islam is a country which under no circumstances can be termed a Dar-ul-Harb and vice versa. There are, however, certain countries which, with reference to certain circumstances, can be termed Dar-ul-Islam, and with reference to others Dar-ul-Harb. Such a country is India at the present moment... If you have power, jihad is incumbent upon you. If you do not have power, it is unlawful.”

Syed Ahmed Khan (1820–1898) Indian educator and politician

quoted in Arun Shourie - The World of Fatwas Or The Sharia in Action (2012, Harper Collins)

Country

“The first thing that begins to happen when you begin taking yourself seriously as a writer is this imaginary writer’s block that people talk about, but I never really suffered from. But there’s this barrier between the spoken word and the written word, once you set something down in writing it’s supposed to be set in stone or you take on this funny attitude that writing is unnatural…”

Frank Chin (1940) American writer

On the writing process in ““FRANK CHIN: HIS OWN VOICE” https://resisters.com/by-frank-abe/frank-chin-his-own-voice/ in the Bloombury Review (September 1991)

People, Suffering

“I saw the opportunity to show the beauty in the culture and show that these words sound magical. We’re so used to using Latin, but if J.K. Rowling saw magic in that, you can see magic in your own culture. And if you can see it, you can help other people to see it.”

Tomi Adeyemi (1993) American author

On showcasing the Yoruba culture in Children of Blood and Bone in “Meet Tomi Adeyemi: the politically-charged author you need to know about in 2019” https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/culture-news/a26933188/tomi-adeyemi-interview/ in Harper’s Bazaar (2019 Mar 26)

Beauty, People, Help

“Do not teach principles that you do not practice. Resolve any contradiction between your direct experience and the words of the wise. Only then may you teach those principles.”

Govinda Bhagavatpada Indian philosopher advaita vendatna

The Himalayan Masters: A Living Tradition (2002)

“Religions remain what they are. Zen is meditation. Meditation is the foundation of every religion. People today feel an intense need to go back to the source of religious life, to the pure essence in the depths of themselves which they can discover only through actually experiencing it. They also need to be able to concentrate their minds in order to find the highest wisdom and freedom, which is spiritual in nature, in their efforts to deal with the influences of every description imposed upon them by their environment. Human wisdom alone is not enough, it is not complete. Only universal truth can provide the highest wisdom. Take away the word Zen and put Truth or Order of the Universe in its place.”

Taisen Deshimaru (1914–1982) Japanese Buddhist monk

Online interview "Questions to Master Deshimaru" at zen-deshimaru.com https://web.archive.org/web/20111008034614/http://www.zen-deshimaru.com/EN/sangha/deshimaru/q-r/0101.htm

Religion, Freedom, People, Feeling

“The Teacher suffered for His words of Truth. Man resists the path to Light. Darkness is more pleasing to the eyes of moles, But love and knowledge will conquer all. Your spirit will ascend and you will pass by the uncomprehending ones swiftly, as you would mileposts on the way. Smile at the difficulties upon your path. I vouch, you will conquer!”

Helena Roerich (1879–1955) Russian philosopher

116
Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book One (The Call) (1924)

Light, Smile, Suffering, Teachers

“In a word, fatwas are the shariah in action.”

Arun Shourie (1941) Indian journalist and politician

The World of Fatwas (Or The Shariah In Action)

“What do I believe? As an American I believe in generosity, in liberty, in the rights of man. These are social and political faiths that are part of me, as they are, I suppose, part of all of us. Such beliefs are easy to express. But part of me too is my relation to all life, my religion. And this is not so easy to talk about. Religious experience is highly intimate and, for me, ready words are not at hand. I am profoundly aware of the magnitude of the universe, that all is ruled by law, including my finite person. I believe in the infinite wisdom that envelops and embraces me and from which I take direction, purpose, strength.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

Essay in This I Believe : 2 (1952) edited by Edward R. Murrow, p. 142

Faith, Religion, Law, Personality

“We talk a great deal about patriotism. What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility which will enable America to remain master of her power — to walk with it in serenity and wisdom, with self-respect and the respect of all mankind; a patriotism that puts country ahead of self; a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. The dedication of a lifetime — these are words that are easy to utter, but this is a mighty assignment. For it is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

Speech to the American Legion convention, New York City (27 August 1952); as quoted in "Democratic Candidate Adlai Stevenson Defines the Nature of Patriotism" in Lend Me Your Ears : Great Speeches In History (2004) by William Safire, p. 79 - 80

Time, Country, Fight, Self-confidence

“Authentic is one of my least favourite words because in such a diverse country, whose authenticity are you talking about?”

Petina Gappah (1971) Zimbabwean writer, journalist and business lawyer

On being considered an authentic Zimbabwean writer in “Petina Gappah interview: ‘I’ve written a very Zimbabwean story – we keep a lot of family secrets’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/05/petina-gappah-interview-ive-written-very-zimbabwean-story in The Guardian (2015 Sep 5)

Country

“I was introduced to Langston Hughes, who became one of my favorite poets…I mean, he was a poet; he wasn’t about words, he was a poet, he had rhythm.”

Pedro Pietri (1944–2004) Puerto Rican writer

On starting off in poetry (as quoted in the book “Race and the Modern Artist” https://books.google.com/books?id=4XY8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA208&lpg=PA208&dq)

“What distinguishes an argument from a play upon words, is that the latter cannot be translated.”

Maurice Barrès (1862–1923) French novelist

Source: Pène du Bois (1897), p. 101.

“Late you come, yet you do come!... You should have recognized the beneficial power of criticism when we were in the opposition. Back then, you had not yet been confronted with these words; back then our press was verboten and verboten and again verboten; our assemblies were banned; we were not allowed to speak, and I was not allowed to speak -- and that went on for years! And now you say criticism is beneficial!”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Speech in the Reichstag (23 March 1933) on the passing of the Enabling Act of 1933. Hitler is responding to Otto Wels, leader of the Social Democrats, who had made a speech in favour of "criticism", i.e. freedom of political opposition.
Hitler opens his response with a quotation from Schiller, "Spät kommt ihr, doch ihr kommt!"
1930s
Source: http://www.worldfuturefund.org/Reports2013/hitlerenablingact.htm
Source: https://www.zum.de/psm/ns/hitler11_macht.php

“I do not know whether my enemies will reply to me, or adopt the role of silence. Whatever they may do I declare to them that this letter will be my only reply to all their calumnies, past, present or future; and I give my word of honor to the public that whatsoever they may say or do, I shall not write a single line more in my justification.”

Alessandro Cagliostro (1743–1795) Italian occultist

Postscriptum
Cagliostro’s Letter to the English People (1787)

Past, Silence, Future

“The people will rise, and at last royalty will have arrayed against it philosophy, which is intelligence, Parliament, which is the middle class, and the mob, which is the people; in other words, the lever with which Archimedes can raise the world.”

Alessandro Cagliostro (1743–1795) Italian occultist

Balsamo the Magician (or The Memoirs of a Physician) by Alex. Dumas (1891)

World, Intelligence, People

“I can say poetry has certainly sharpened my senses and keeps me open to wonder about alternative realities, to be overly curious rather than overly ideological, it can be read as just a reminder that we have more senses than we have the words for, so perhaps we ought to revel in that if we are to truly live our lives in the light?”

Raymond Antrobus (1986)

On the impact that poetry has had on his life in “Deaf poetics: Conversation with Raymond Antrobus" https://poetryinternationalonline.com/conversation-with-raymond-antrobus/ (Poetry International; 2018 Oct 11)

Sense, Reality, Reading, Light

“We wish, in a word, to fulfill the intentions of nature and the destiny of man, realize the promises of philosophy, and acquit providence of a long reign of crime and tyranny. That France, once illustrious among enslaved nations, may, by eclipsing the glory of all free countries that ever existed, become a model to nations, a terror to oppressors, a consolation to the oppressed, an ornament of the universe and that, by sealing the work with our blood, we may at least witness the dawn of the bright day of universal happiness. This is our ambition, - this is the end of our efforts....”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Principles to Form the Basis of the Administration of the Republic (February 1794)

Universe, Nature, Effort, Country

“I defy the most scrupulous defender of property to contest these principles, short of declaring openly that he understands this word as the right to despoil and assassinate his fellows. So how have people been able to claim that any sort of restriction, or rather any regulation of the trade in wheat, was an attack on property, and disguise that barbaric system under the specious name of freedom of trade? Do the authors of this system not perceive that they are inevitably in contradiction with themselves?”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

On Subsistence, (2 December 1792)

People, Understanding, Freedom

“And she actually looks—well, I’m not sure how to describe her. Scary is such an inadequate word, don’t you think?”

Charles Stross The Laundry Files

Source: The Laundry Files, The Annihilation Score (2015), Chapter 11, “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” (p. 197)

Thinking

“I have been helped by terror (in the heart of the enemy); I have been given words which are concise but comprehensive in meaning; and while I was asleep I was brought the keys of the treasures of the earth which were placed in my hand.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

[4, 1066]
Sunni Hadith

Help, Heart

“I have been commissioned with words which are concise but comprehensive in meaning; I have been helped by terror (in the hearts of enemies): and while I was asleep I was brought the keys of the treasures of the earth which were placed in my hand. And Abfi Huraira added: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) has left (for his heavenly home) and you are now busy in getting them.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

[4, 1063]
Sunni Hadith

Home, Peace, Business, Help

“I have been given superiority over the other prophets in six respects: I have been given words which are concise but comprehensive in meaning; I have been helped by terror (in the hearts of enemies): spoils have been made lawful to me: the earth has been made for me clean and a place of worship; I have been sent to all mankind and the line of prophets is closed with me.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

[4, 1062]
Sunni Hadith

Law, Help, Heart

“The way the world worked, once the word was out, the effect would take on exhaustibility. There was always not merely the event itself, but opinion of the event, and rebuttal of the opinion, and the ready charge of self-interest, and the countercharge. There was the analysis of the event, and the excavation of the root causes of the event, and the placement of the event in the correct historical context. Everyone would want to kick the can, and it would clatter over the cobblestones interminably, far from the toes of those who’d first impelled it.”

Algis Budrys book Michaelmas

Source: Michaelmas (1977), Chapter 10 (p. 153)

World, Self-confidence, Way

“Time was when men of Horse Watson’s profession typically never slept sober, and died with their livers eroded. It must have been fun to watch the literate swashbucklers make fools of themselves in the frontier saloons, indulging in horsewhippings and shoot-outs with rival journalists and their partisans. But who stopped to think what it was to have the power of words and publication, to discover that an entire town and territory would judge, condemn, act, reprieve and glorify because of something you had slugged together the night before? Because of something you had handset into type, smudging your fingertips with metal poisons that inexorably began their journey through your bloodstream? For the sake of the power, you turned your liver and kidneys into spongy, irascible masses; you tainted the tissue of your brain with heavy metal ions until it became a house haunted by stumbling visions. Alcohol would temporarily overcome the effect. So you became an alcoholic, and purchased sanity one day at a time, and made a spectacle of yourself. It was neither funny nor tragic in the end—it was simply a fact of life that operated more slowly on the mediocre, because the mediocre could turn themselves off and go to sleep whether they had done the night’s job to their own satisfaction or not.”

Algis Budrys book Michaelmas

Source: Michaelmas (1977), Chapter 3 (pp. 36-37)

Sleep, Time, Night, Housing

“Secular, as I understand, means that religion should not play any role in governance. If it’s true, then why were you quiet for last 10 years when the ruling party was continuously giving alms to Muslims? Did you and your fellow signatories utter a word when PM M.M. Singh said that minorities have first right over natural resources?”

Vivek Agnihotri (1973) director

Urban Naxals (2018)

Religion, Understanding, Nature

“The first and biggest difference between the two dialects is, in our opinion, is the difference in pronunciation or the stress. The Macedonian dialect usually prefers to place the stress in the beginning of the words, and the other one in the end, so in the first dialect you can’t find a word with a stress on the last syllable, while in the latter in most cases the stress is on the last syllable. Here Macedonian dialect is approaching the Serbian dialect.”

Parteniy Zografski (1818–1876) Bulgarian bishop

Thoughts about the Bulgarian language (1858)

“I offer this gift to my God, I dedicate this gift to Him. Only this remains to me as my treasure. I gave up everything else at the command of the Spirit. I gave all that I had to obtain the pearl of great price. Only in words do I master it, as a servant of the Word. I would never intentionally wish to disdain this wealth. I esteem it, I set value by it, I am comforted by it more than others are comforted by all the treasures of the world. It is the companion of all my life, a good counselor and converser; a guide on the way to Heaven and a fervent co-ascetic.”

Gregory of Nazianzus (329–389) Christian saint, bishop, and theologian

Concerning his literary gift Source: "St. Gregory the Theologian the Archbishop of Constantinople" https://oca.org/saints/lives/2014/01/25/100298-st-gregory-the-theologian-the-archbishop-of-constantinople

God, Wealth, Way, World

“I have seen many theoretical objections to democracy, and sometimes urge them with such heat that it probably goes beyond the bound of sound taste, but I am thoroughly convinced, nonetheless, that the democratic nations are happier than any other. The United States today, indeed, is probably the happiest the world has ever seen. Taxes are high, but they are still well within the means of the taxpayer: he could pay twice as much and still survive. The laws are innumerable and idiotic, but only prisoners in the penitentiaries and persons under religious vows ever obey them. The country is governed by rogues, but there is no general dislike of rogues: on the contrary, they are esteemed and envied. Best of all, the people have the pleasant feeling that they can make improvements at any time they want to—... in other words, they are happy. Democrats are always happy. Democracy is a sort of laughing gas. It will not cure anything, perhaps, but it unquestionably stops the pain.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

"The Master Illusion" in the The American Mercury (March 1925), p. 319
1920s

Democracy, Pain, Time, Law

“Be these people either Conservatives or Socialists, Yellows or Reds, the most important thing is — and that is the point I want to stress — that all of them are right in the plain and moral sense of the word... I ask whether it is not possible to see in the present social conflict of the world an analogous struggle between two, three, five equally serious verities and equally generous idealisms? I think it is possible, and that is the most dramatic element in modern civilization, that a human truth is opposed to another human truth no less human, ideal against ideal, positive worth against worth no less positive, instead of the struggle being as we are so often told, one between noble truth and vile selfish error.”

Karel Čapek (1890–1938) Czech writer

R.U.R. supplement in The Saturday Review (1923)

Selfishness, People, Truth, World

“Sad is a fake word for me to be using, I am still angry that their reason for disagreeing with McCarthy was too often his crude methods.... Many of the anti-Communists were, of course, honest men. But none of them... has stepped forward to admit a mistake. It is not necessary in this country; they too know that we are a people who do not remember much. I have written here that I have recovered. I mean it only in a worldly sense because I do not believe in recovery. The past, with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, its punishments, is there for each of us forever, and it should be.”

Lillian Hellman (1905–1984) American dramatist and screenwriter

Source: Scoundrel Time (1976), p. 150

Country, Past, People, Pleasure

“The written word is holy…When we write our stories, it helps us bring understanding.”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

On the importance of gaining knowledge in “Author Victor Villaseñor talks 'Crazy Loco'” https://www.lmtonline.com/que_pasa/article/Author-Victor-Villase-or-talks-Crazy-Loco-10268363.php in LMT Online (2008 Dec 11)

Help, Understanding

“We are a part of this take-down culture where people are trying to twist your words.”

Cory Booker (1969) 35th Class 2 senator for New Jersey in U.S. Congress

2019
Source: https://twitter.com/steinhauserNH1/status/1096852721800544256

People, Parting

“The Frontier tribesmen are acutely sensitive to the appeal of religion and when a well-known Mullah started to preach against the Hindus…, his words fell on fruitful ground. He called upon the Afridis and Shinwaris to expel all the Hindus living in their midst unless they declared in writing that they dissociated themselves from the doings of their co-religionists down country…. This expulsion and voluntary exodus from tribal territory were without parallel. Hindus had lived there for more generations than most of them could record as valued and respected, and, indeed, as essential members of the tribal system, for whose protection the tribesmen had been jealous, and whose blood feuds they commonly made their own.”

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) Father of republic India, champion of human rights, father of India's Constitution, polymath, revolutionary…

Source: Pakistan or The Partition of India (1946), Chapter 7

Religion, Country

“There were the Chârvâkas, who preached horrible things, the most rank, undisguised materialism, such as in the nineteenth century they dare not openly preach. These Charvakas were allowed to preach from temple to temple, and city to city, that religion was all nonsense, that it was priestcraft, that the Vedas were the words and writings of fools, rogues, and demons, and that there was neither God nor an eternal soul. If there was a soul, why did it not come back after death drawn by the love of wife and child. Their idea was that if there was a soul it must still love after death, and want good things to eat and nice dress. Yet no one hurt these Charvakas.”

Charvaka An unorthodox school of Hindu philosophy

Swami Vivekananda as recorded in the complete works of Swami Vivekananda https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_2/Jnana-Yoga/Maya_and_the_Evolution_of_the_Conception_of_God.

Hurt, God, Soul, Religion

“There is a demand for true heroism in our lives. True heroism can manifest itself, in particular, by defending civilization from today’s evils. Of course, terrorism is one of the most serious and challenging evils…. the only way to effectively stand up to terrorism is to join efforts. Unfortunately, in the true sense of the word, we have not put this cooperation in place yet. There are some aspects of cooperation where we have succeeded but this is not enough. By the highest standards, we have failed to join efforts the way we should so far, while this could be done, based on the relevant international rules of law and UN resolutions.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

Cooperation, Terrorism, UK & USA, President Trump, Resolving Conflict, Defense, Crimea, The Media, Nuclear Weapons Policy: 15th Plenary Session (18 October 2018)

Law, Sense, Way, Evil

“Positions have been coordinated, except for the United States, which always has a special opinion. In fact, the US delegation was open about it from the outset. Everyone knows the current Administration’s stance on the Paris Accords. Nevertheless, all the other participants in the forum confirmed their readiness to implement the agreements under the Paris Accords. Actually, I think there is also a positive moment in the US position too, since the Americans said they were ready to work on the environmental agenda under their own programme. We have to read the final wording but the fact that the Americans say they also want to contribute to solving environmental issues is a positive thing, in my view.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

Vladimir Putin’s news conference, Transcript, Kremlin.ru, http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/60857 (29 June 2019) 2019

Thinking, Reading

“And now when the retorts and beakers with their several necks and tubes and the appurtenances thereof were set in order, and the unhallowed processes of fixation, conjunction, deflagration, putrefaction, and rubefication were nearing maturity, and the baleful star Antares standing by the astrolabe within a little of the meridian signified the instant approach of midnight, the King described on the floor with his conjuring rod three pentacles inclosed within a seven-pointed star, with the signs of Cancer and of Scorpio joined by certain runes. And in the midst of the star he limned the image of a green crab eating of the sun. And turning to the seventy-third page of his great black grammarie the King recited in a mighty voice words of hidden meaning, calling on the name that it is a sin to utter.”

Eric Rücker Eddison book The Worm Ouroboros

Source: The Worm Ouroboros (1922), Chapter 4, "Conjuring in the Iron Tower"

Sun, Star

“I WANT NOTHING I WANT NOTHING I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO. TELL ZELLINSKY TO DO THE RIGHT THING. THIS IS THE FINAL WORD FROM THE PRES. OF THE U. S.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Remarks on a notepad, White House lawn, November 20 https://www.vox.com/2019/11/20/20974383/trump-big-sharpie-notes-on-impeachment-testimony, after Ambassador Gordon Sondland's testimony. 2010s, 2019, November

“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Campaign launch rally, 15/6/15
2010s, 2015

“The greatest lesson I’ve learned from it is that context is irrelevant when you hurt somebody. I felt justified in saying what I was saying, because of the context, because of the conversation, but the words I used offended a lot of people and some people I care about, and those words were wrong…”

Reggie Yates (1983) English actor, television presenter and radio DJ

On his mea culpa after making what some interpreted as an anti-Semitic statement in “Reggie Yates: ‘I could get George Clooney to say stuff he’d never said before’” https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/oct/19/reggie-yates-documentary-maker-interview-i-could-get-george-clooney-to-say-stuff in The Guardian (2019 Oct 19)

Hurt, People, Learning

“Oral tradition is really how Chicano literature came to be. I was not exposed to the written word, but I had the greatest teacher. I always tell people that my mother was my inspiration because she was the best chismosa, and she had the best stories. And if anyone taught me about drama, it was my mother because she knew how to tell a story. And my grandfather also told stories. One of the reasons why I waned to be a writer was because I was fascinated by stories of La Llorona, supernatural stories and things like that and I love hearing chisme (gossip)…”

Josefina Lopez (1969) American playwright

On her earliest influences in “JOSEFINA LÓPEZ – IN HER OWN WORDS” http://latinopia.com/latino-theater/josefina-lopez/ in Latinopia (2010 Mar 6)

People, Teachers, Literature, Love

“In Nicaragua, liberty, equality and the rule of law were the stuff of dreams. But in Paris I discovered the value of those words.”

Bianca Jagger (1945) Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a former actress

Dreams, Law

“Thirty-five years ago he and I were young men in London, with different outlooks, with different social surroundings, with different ideas about our careers, but an intimacy sprung up which was never checked…. Three things distinguished him then, as they did later: unflinching courage, a wide devotion to the State which always looked beyond himself, and an unshakable resolution when he had made up his mind. With these qualities Lord Curzon went to India as Viceroy. It is not necessary to agree about everything in his policy in order to appreciate how great an administrator Lord Curzon was there…. I know, not by his testimony but by the testimony of others, that by his courage and his determination to see justice done he redressed many an individual evil and put right much that a man of less energy and tenacity of purpose than himself could not have put right…. He was a man in a high sense of the word…. We shall look back upon his figure, we shall look back upon it as a figure which was that of a great Englishman, and we shall look back upon that figure with pride in our race.”

George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1859–1925) British politician

Lord Haldane in the House of Lords http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1925/mar/23/tribute-to-the-late-lord-curzon (23 March 1925). About Curzon

Courage, Justice, Sense, Idea

“More than a traveler, I’m a displacer. In other words, I’m a person who is constantly meditating on what it means not to arrive at a place, but to be on my way somewhere else.”

Ariel Dorfman (1942) Chilean writer

On further elaborating on his point of being displaced in “Ariel Dorfman: 'Not to belong anywhere, to be displaced, is not a bad thing for a writer'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/09/ariel-dorfman-not-to-belong-anywhere-to-be-displaced-is-not-a-bad-thing-for-a-writer in The Guardian (2018 May 9)

Way, Personality, Travel

“Efficiency, competence: Black students know the deadly, neutral definition of these words. There seldom has been a more efficient system for profiteering, through human debasement, than the plantations, of a while ago. Today, the whole world sits, as quietly scared as it can sit, afraid that, tomorrow, America may direct its efficiency and competence toward another forest for defoliation, or clean-cut laser-beam extermination.”

June Jordan (1936–2002) Poet, essayist, playwright, feminist and bisexual activist

Source: Black Studies: Bringing Back The Person (1969), p. 47

World

“Plays are events in time and space. Plays are music. Word music. Visual music. I’ve always thought of plays as a form of composition—of text and the architecture of the experience of the full-length evening…”

Caridad Svich (1963) American writer

On how she describes plays in “Making Invisible Stories Seen, Heard and Felt Interview with Caridad Svich” http://www.critical-stages.org/3/making-invisible-stories-seen-heard-and-felt-interview-with-caridad-svich/ in The IATC webjournal/Revue web de l'AICT – Autumn 2010: Issue No 3

Music, Time

“Trump does not just fan the flames of violence with his rhetoric, he also provides legitimation to a number of white nationalists and right-wing extremist groups who are emboldened by his words and actions and too often ready to translate their hatred into the desecration of synagogues, schools, and other public sites, as well as engage in violence against peaceful protesters, and in some cases commit heinous acts of violence.”

Henry Giroux (1943) American academic

Interview with Media For Us, 2019

School, Peace

“Today freedom also means the freedom to hate, it means the freedom to say anything, it means the freedom to disparage people, to dehumanize people, to believe in the culture of cruelty, to believe that kindness is not a virtue but a liability. Freedom has been extended into a discourse of violence and hate, which is really part of a larger cultural apparatus that has so undermined the relationship between freedom and justice, freedom and equality, freedom and social responsibility that those terms drop out and freedom becomes in a sense a liability with respect to what a democratic socialist country might look like. The other side of this is that there is a really demonic notion of freedom that seems to suggest we’re all equal and we can all make all of the choices that we want — it’s up to us. In other words, it suggests that choice in this one-dimensional sense of market freedom is defined without constraints. So you are free to sleep under a bridge at night, or you’re free to sleep in the Ritz. Well, that’s just nonsense. It seems to me that choice only becomes meaningful when people have the capacity to make real choices. That’s what freedom really is about in an economic and political sense.”

Henry Giroux (1943) American academic

Interview with Media For Us, 2019

Sleep, Hate, Justice, Night

“The word lynching comes from an incident in the Bible where Jesus Christ told people to hit a woman with stones only if they had never committed any sin in their pasts.”

Mohan Bhagwat (1950) Indian activist

As quoted in " Term mob lynching comes from Bible, says Mohan Bhagwat https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/lynchings-being-used-to-defame-india-hindus-rss-chief-mohan-bhagwat-1607257-2019-10-08" Indiatoday (October 8, 2019) 2015-present

Past, Christ, People

“I am at a loss for words to describe my lack of eagerness to go there.”

Charles Stross The Laundry Files

Source: The Laundry Files, The Apocalypse Codex (2012), Chapter 15, “Black Bag Job” (p. 321)

Loss

“Imagine a world where speaking or writing words can literally and directly make things happen, where getting one of those words wrong can wreak unbelievable havoc, but where with the right spell you can summon immensely powerful agencies to work your will. Imagine further that this world is administered: there is an extensive division of labour, among the magicians themselves and between the magicians and those who coordinate their activity. It’s bureaucratic, and also (therefore) chaotic, and it’s full of people at desks muttering curses and writing invocations, all beavering away at a small part of the big picture. The coordinators, because they don’t understand what’s going on, are easy prey for smooth-talking preachers of bizarre cults that demand arbitrary sacrifices and vanish with large amounts of money. Welcome to the IT department.”

Charles Stross The Laundry Files

Ken MacLeod in Introduction: Charlie’s Demons (p. xvi)
The Laundry Files, The Atrocity Archives (2004)

Money, Imagination, Understanding, People

“Some of these things seem as if it’s a lot of hard work, and it is. But it’s to an end—toward a richer, deeper understanding of a phenomenon that I was seeking to bring to life…The term narrative comes from Greek for the word knowing. And I think that that’s a powerful message because it means you cannot tell a story until you know the story.”

Isabel Wilkerson (1961) American journalist

On how she hopes The Warmth of Other Suns led to a deeper understanding in “Isabel Wilkerson” https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2016/fall/feature/isabel-wilkerson in Humanities (Fall 2016)

Life, Thinking, Understanding

“My diction, my choice of words, is as precise as I can make it. The images that I use, the evocation of the senses, again, relies upon a certain exactitude. You can see how what I did with language as a poet would bleed into what I did as a lawyer, vice-versa…”

Martín Espada (1957) Puerto Rican poet

On how his correlates the language of a poet with practicing law in “The Writer’s Block Transcripts: A Q&A with Martin Espada” https://www.sampsoniaway.org/interviews/2015/12/11/the-writers-block-transcripts-a-qa-with-martin-espada/ in Sampsonia Way (2015 Dec 11)

Sense, Making love

Quotes about wording page 88

Quotes about wording
page 88