“1) Différance is the systematic play of differences, of the traces of differences, of the spacing by means of which elements are related to each other. This spacing is the simultaneously active and passive (the a of différance indicates this indecision as concerns activity and passivity, that which cannot be governed by or distributed between the terms of this opposition) production of the intervals without which the "full" terms would not signify, would not function.” MeanPlayTermDifferencesActivityElementsConcernFunctionProductionsActiveRelatedOppositionPassiveSystematicIntervalsIndecisionPassivitySpacing Author:Jacques Derrida
“The problem with most children's hospitals is that they are passive. They are high quality. They are filled with the best doctors. But their function is to wait until kids get sick and get referred in.” ChildrenProblemKidsWaitingQualityDoctorsSickFunctionFilledHospitalsPassiveHigh Quality Author:Irwin Redlener
“The function of violence is to obtain reform by external means, the function of passive resistance, that is, soul-force, is to obtain it by growth from within, which, in its turn, is obtained by self-suffering, self-purification.” MeanSoulSelfSufferingTurnsForceGrowthViolenceFunctionResistanceReformPassivePurificationSoul ForcePassive Resistance Book:Gandhi: 'Hind Swaraj' and Other Writings Source: Gandhi: 'Hind Swaraj' and Other Writings
“Taste is the intermediate faculty which connects the active with the passive powers of our nature, the intellect with the senses; and its appointed function is to elevate the images of the latter, while it realizes the ideas of the former.” IdeasRealizingTasteFunctionIntellectActiveSensesFormerLatterFacultyPassive Book:The Collected works: Shorter works and fragments Source: The Collected works: Shorter works and fragments
“Mother is in herself a concrete denial of the idea of sexual pleasure since her sexuality has been placed at the service of reproductive function alone. She is the perpetually violated passive principle; her autonomy has been sufficiently eroded by the presence within her of the embryo she brought to term. Her unthinking ability to reproduce, which is her pride, is, since it is beyond choice, not a specific virtue of her own.” Has BeensIdeasMotherChoicesTermAbilityPleasurePrinciplesVirtuePrideFunctionSexualityDenialConcretePassiveAutonomyEmbryos Author:Angela Carter
“To love is not a passive thing. To love is active voice. When I love I do something, I function, I give. I do not love in order that I may be loved back again, but for the creative joy of loving. And every time I do so love I am freed, at least a little, by the outgoing of love, from enslavement to that most intolerable of master, myself.” GivingMayLittlesJoyOrderVoiceLove IsCreativeLove YouMastersSelf LoveFunctionActivePassiveBack AgainEnslavementOutgoing Author:Bernard Iddings Bell
“The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what—these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to the education and rank.” WritingLongSecretReaderThousandFunctionSentencesProportionCarrieConstructionPassiveComponentsVerbsGood WritingUnsureAdverbsShort WordsLong Words Author:William Zinsser