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Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics, and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory

Book by Roy Blount, Jr. · 8 quotes · Abc's, Advice, American English

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Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics, and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory Quotes

“Any given generation gives the next generation advice that the given generation should have been given by the previous generation but now it's too late.”

“Usage ain't always a matter of ought.”

“People don't necessarily want or need to be done unto as you would have them do unto you. They want to be done unto as they want to be done unto.”

“That's American English for you: more roots than a mangrove swamp.”

“English is an outrageous tangle of those derivations and other multifarious linguistic influences, from Yiddish to Shoshone, which has grown up around a gnarly core of chewy, clangorous yawps derived from ancestors who painted themselves blue to frighten their enemies.”

“According to scholars of linguistics, the relation between a word and its meaning is arbitrary.”

“To me, letters have always been a robust medium of sublimation. I don't remember what I was like before I learned my ABC's, but for as long as I can remember I have made them with my fingers and felt them in my bones.”

“Eaters of Wonder Bread Must be underbred. So little to eat. Where's the wheat?”