To suppose that "I know" is a descriptive phrase, is only one example of the descriptive fallacy, so common in philosophy. Even if... some language is now purely descriptive, language was not in origin so, and much of it is still not so. utterance of obvious ritual phrases, in the appropriate circumstances, is not describing the action we are doing, but doing it ("I do"): in other cases it functions, like tone and expression, or again like punctuation and mood, as an intimation that we are employing language in a special way ("I warn," "I ask," "I define"). Such phrases cannot, strictly, be lies, though they can "imply" lies, as "I promise" implies that I fully intend, which may be true.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Long ago I added to the true old adage of "What is everybody's business is nobody's business," another clause which, I think, more... than any other principle has served to influence my actions in life. That is, What is nobody's business is my business.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Well, the wedding is over, the good folks are joined for better for worse--a shocking clause that!--'tis preparing one to lead a l...ong journey, and to know the path is not altogether strewed with roses.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In the learned journal, in the influential newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener some monied corpo...ration, or some dangler, who hopes, in the mask and robes of his paragraph, to pass for somebody. But through every clause and part of speech of the right book I meet the eyes of the most determined men; his force and terror inundate every word: the commas and dashes are alive; so that the writing is athletic and nimble,--can go far and live long.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Science is analytical, descriptive, informative. Man does not live by bread alone, but by science he attempts to do so. Hence the ...deadliness of all that is purely scientific.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The clause which lived twenty-four hours in the Alabama Constitution, granting to taxpaying women owning $500 worth of property th...e suffrage on questions of bonded indebtedness, was killed by a disease peculiar to the genus homo known as chivalry. In the case in point, the diagnosis revealed that the fairest, purest and brightest jewels that ever shone under the brilliant rays of God's shining sun would be immeasurably lowered by voting upon questions relating to the taxation of their own property. Yet, under the vagaries of this disease, this same convention conferred on husbands the right to vote on their wives' property. This is the same character of chivalry which gives the wages of the brightest, fairest jewels to the husband, which makes impossible equal pay for equal work and which classes the jewels with the idiots, insane and criminals in that and other States.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One of the most important things, to my mind, in English style is word-order. For us, the most emphatic place in a clause or sente...nce is the end. This is the climax; and, during the momentary pause that follows, that last word continues, as it were, to reverberate in the reader's mind. It has, in fact, the last word. One should therefore think twice about what one puts at a sentence-end. But in a German sentence this final position may be reserved, by a most curious grammatical convention, for an infinitive or past participle; or, in a subordinate clause, for the main verb. Thus logical emphasis, unless particularly strong, tends to be sacrificed to mere grammar.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Both art and physics are unique forms of language. Each has a specialized lexicon of symbols that is used in a distinctive syntax.... Their very different and specific contexts obscure their connection to everyday language as well as to each other. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy just how often the terms of one can be applied to the concepts of the other. "Volume," "space," "mass," "force," "light," "color," "tension," "relationship," and "density" are descriptive words that are heard repeatedly if you trail along with a museum docent. They also appear on the blackboards of freshman college physics lectures. The proponents of these two diverse endeavors wax poetic about elegance, symmetry, beauty, and aesthetics. While physicists demonstrate that A equals B or that X is the same as Y, artists often choose signs, symbols, and allegories to equate a painterly image with a feature of experience. Both of these techniques reveal previously hidden relationships.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Acts themselves alone are history.... Tell me the acts, O historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away with your ...reasoning and your rubbish! All that is not action is not worth reading.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »