It rarely adds anything to say, "In my opinion"Mnot even modesty. Naturally a sentence is only your opinion; and you are not the P...ope.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Here we have the beautiful British compromise: a man can say anything, he mustn't do anything; a man can listen to anything, but h...e musn't be roused to do anything. By freedom of speech is meant freedom to talk about; speech is not saying-as-an-action.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is such a thing as food and such a thing as poison. But the damage done by those who pass off poison as food is far less tha...n that done by those who generation after generation convince people that food is poison.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Faced with even a temporary delay or absence, children pound and scream and bawl; but as soon as the situation changes, they are b...afflingly sunny, and take their gratification with relish, or feel secure again when mother returns. It is said that "children cannot wait," but just the contrary is true. It is children who can wait, by making dramatic scenes (not otherwise than religious people get through hours of stress by singing hymns). They have a spontaneous mechanism to cushion even minor troubles. Rather it is the adults who have inhibited their spontaneous expression, who cannot wait; we swallow our disappointment and always taste what we have swallowed. For where the occasions of passion occur, where there is actual frustration and misery, and yet anger and grief are not explosively released, then the disposition itself is soured, and such happiness as follows is never full and unclouded.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When the Devil quotes Scriptures, it's not, really, to deceive, but simply that the masses are so ignorant of theology that somebo...dy has to teach them the elementary texts before he can seduce them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To translate, one must have a style of his own, for otherwise the translation will have no rhythm or nuance, which come from the p...rocess of artistically thinking through and molding the sentences; they cannot be reconstituted by piecemeal imitation. The problem of translation is to retreat to a simpler tenor of one's own style and creatively adjust this to one's author.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For mankind, speech with a capital S is especially meaningful and committing, more than the content communicated. The outcry of th...e newborn and the sound of the bells are fraught with mystery more than the baby's woeful face or the venerable tower.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The important thing about travel in foreign lands is that it breaks the speech habits and makes you blab less, and breaks the habi...tual space-feeling because of different village plans and different landscapes. It is less important that there are different mores, for you counteract these with your own reaction- formations.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »