Quotes of Note
In no particular order.
Neither can his mind be thought to be in tune, whose words do jarre; nor his reason in frame, whose sentence is preposterous; nor his elocution clear and perfect, whose utterance breaks itself into fragments and uncertainties.
– Ben Johnson, "Timber, or, Discoveries made upon Men and Matters"
Whoring is to provide pleasure to another without any principle by which to understand whether or not pleasure and goodness are the same, and whether or not [that other] should have this pleasure.
– Richard Mitchell, "Writing Against your Life"
The whole business is a comforting display of the benefits we reap from the First Amendment, by whose power fools are so easily led into foregoing the protection offered them by the Fifth.
– Richard Mitchell, "Underground Grammarian" vol 11:1
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
– Francis Bacon
The excesse of Feasts and apparell are the notes of a sick State, and the wantonnesse of language, a sick mind.
– Ben Johnson, "Timber, or, Discoveries made upon Men and Matters"
Where there is an inward commitment to the worth of knowledge and reason – not only because they are useful, but because they are good – the authority of principle is enough to ensure both the interest and the good workmanship that lead to clarity and precision, and even to grace, in statement.
– Richard Mitchell, "Underground Grammarian" vol 5:4
Experience by itself can teach only knacks, which may indeed save a fool, but will hardly make him wise, or even a teacher. It is thoughtful, orderly discourse about experience that leads to understanding.
– Richard Mitchell, "Underground Grammarian" vol 6:8
One cannot understand the least thing about modern civilization if one does not first realize that it is a universal conspiracy to destroy the inner life.
– George Bernanos
He who would do good to another must do It in Minute Particulars. General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, flatterer; for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars."
– William Blake
Our job is to find problems before they occur.
– Erik T. Ougland
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us.
– Richard Mitchell
Computer languages provide the possibility of an exact and precisely limited correspondence not only between what is said and what is meant, but also between what is meant and what is so in the strictly defined system about which, and only about which, statements can be made.
– Richard Mitchell, "Underground Grammarian" vol 8:1
But this we know: that Socrates held it an act of unreason and aggression to manage any human resources but his own, and that to treat a person as an object to be used or as an agent to be turned was not the act of a reasonable man, but a form of impiety, the injury of a soul.
– Richard Mitchell, "Underground Grammarian" vol 9:3
comp.lang.lisp: please realize that the Common Lisp community is more than 40 years old. collectively, the community has already been where every clueless newbie will be going for the next three years.
– #:Erik (Erik Naggum) 26JAN2000
We are neither peddlers nor politicians that we should prosper by that use of language which carries the least meaning.
– Richard Mitchell
As bad actors cannot sing alone, but only in a large company, so some men cannot walk alone. Man, if you are worth anything, you must walk alone, and talk to yourself, and not hide in the chorus. Learn to beat mockery, look about you, examine yourself, that you may get to know who you are.
– Epictetus
Literacy is not a handy knack. It is a moral condition. The ability to read attentively, reflectively, and judiciously is equally the ability to be attentive, reflective, and judicious. For the sake of just and sane living, literacy is not an optional adornment. It is a necessity. It is the necessity. It is not a variety or portion of education. It is education. It is the whole thing, the wholesome nourishment of the mind, by which it may grow strong enough to be the master of the will and not its slave, the judge of desire and not its procurer, the censor of sentiment and not its tool, and the inquisitor of belief, and not its flack. It is our only path to whatever wisdom we can have, which is our only path to whatever goodness we can know, which is our only path to whatever happiness we can enjoy.
– Richard Mitchell.
A student of astronomy should be careful not to look at the stars.
– Aristotle
In the Tree of Life there are two birds: one eats, one watches.
– Older than the oldest.
Three things doth make the Earth tremble, and four which it cannot bear—
- The servant that rideth.
- The fool when he is full.
- The odious woman when she is married.
- The handmaiden that is heir to her mistress."
– Guess
Government is whatever agency that can both claim and exercise a total monopoly of power and violence.
– Richard Mitchell
Well, we know in part, we prophesy in part, and in part we babble, with the tongues neither of men nor of angels, reciting what we have often heard, as blind mouths speak to stopped ears, as no one speaks to no one.
– Richard Mitchell about "this nasty perversion of language and intellect" that is rightly called "Impactio".
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense."
– Edsger Dijkstra
There's a bulimic's dream-feast of killer kontent on the way. [But] if it already makes you want to puke, get angry. Write it, code it, paint it, play it– rattle the cage however you can. Stay hungry. Stay free. And believe it: win, lose , or draw, we're here to stay. Armed only with imagination, we're going to rip the fucking lid off.
– Chris Locke, "Cluetrain Manifesto: The Book"
Control is the enemy of imagination. The two aren't just incompatible; they are inimical. One drives out the other. Deming, the Total Quality guy, said "drive out fear." Imagine.
– Chris Locke, "Gonzo Marketing: Winning through Worst Practices."
So much for that. There is another good reason for this change. We are interested, obviously, in what we publish, but we are also interested in publishing itself. We hold that the freedom of the press not only belongs to the man who owns one, but even that that freedom belongs only to the man who owns one. Newspapers and magazines enjoy that freedom, of course, but only insofar as the law is concerned. They are, by obvious necessity, bound— bound by the opinions and tastes of their readers and advertisers. And bound, too, by perfectly legitimate principles of impartiality and restraint. Even scurrilous publications are captive to that depravity to which they pander. But the private press, which is, we are convinced, what Jefferson had in mind, is free to be truly free. If it is free to be crazy and perverse, that is the price we must pay so that it will also be free to do what we always hope and intend to do, to curry no one's favor and to fear no one's disapproval, but to seek and speak the truth as best it can.
– Richard Mitchell, "Underground Grammarian, Vol 9:3"
The splitting of the infinitive, like the celibacy of the clergy, is a matter not of doctrine but of discipline.
– Richard Mitchell, "Underground Grammarian, Vol 2:4"
The uneducated man is like a leaf blown from here to there, believing whatever he is told.
– Socrates
There is a moment in every day that Satan's watchfiends cannot find.
– Blake
The basic assumption of the ward system, whether Jefferson knew it or not, was that no one could be called happy without his share in public happiness, that no one could be called free without his experience in public freedom, and that no one could be called either happy or free without participating, and having a share, in public power.
– Hannah Arendt writing about Thomas Jefferson