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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“In very clear and available language, this book details how to recognize the inner critic and how to deal effectively with it. Byron Brown's presentation is useful for any individual who wishes to be free from the inner suffering and coercion of this ancient foe of our humanity, but it is specifically directed to those interested and engaged in the inner journey toward realization and enlightenment.”

BookSufferingHumanityIndividualLanguageWishDealsClearJourneyEnlightenmentCriticsAncientDetailsAvailableRealizationEngagedBrownFoePresentationCoercionInner JourneyByron
Author:A. H. Almaas
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“Language is inherently not concerned with logic. As an expression of the psychological activities of humankind, it simply follows a linear process as it seeks actualisation. Moreover, it does not obey the objective concepts of time and space that belong to the physical world. When the discussion of time and space is imported into linguistic art from scientific aims and research methods, that linguistic art is entirely reduced to trifling pseudo-philosophical issues.”

WorldDoeArtLanguageProcessSpaceIssuesExpressionActivityResearchArt IsConceptsConcernedLogicPhilosophicalAimMethodObjectivesPsychologicalDiscussionHumankindTime And SpaceLinearPseudoTriflingConcept Of Time
Author:Gao Xingjian
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“I believe C++ instills fear in programmers, fear that the interaction of some details causes unpredictable results. Its unmanageable complexity has spawned more fear-preventing tools than any other language, but the solution should have been to create and use a language that does not overload the whole goddamn human brain with irrelevant details.”

ShouldBelieveHumansDoeHas BeensWholeUseLanguageI BelieveCausesResultsBrainSolutionsToolsShould HaveDetailsComplexityInteractionUnpredictableIrrelevantShould Have BeenProgrammersPreventingHuman BrainInstillOverload
Author:Erik Naggum
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“You become a serious programmer by going through a stage where you are fully aware of the degree to which you know the specification, meaning both the explicit and the tacit specification of your language and of your problem. "Hey, it works most of the time" is the very antithesis of a serious programmer, and certain languages can only support code like that.”

KnowsProblemCertainLanguageSupportStageSeriousDegreesHeyCodeWhere You AreProgrammersExplicitAntithesisTacitSpecifications
Author:Erik Naggum
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“You have to seduce the reader, manipulate their mind and heart, listen to the music of language. I sometimes think of prose as music, in terms of its rhythms and dynamics, the way you compress and expand the attention of a reader over a sentence, the way the tempo pushes you towards an image or sensation. We want an intense experience, so that we can forget ourselves when we enter the world of the book. When you are reading, the physical object of the book should disappear from your hands.”

ThinkingWorldWayWantShouldWritingMindHeartBookSometimesHandsReadingLanguageTermForgetAttentionObjectsReaderSentencesDisappearIntenseRhythmProseSensationsHeart And MindManipulateTempoDynamicsSeducing
Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon
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“The teachers tried everything, even pleading, but Tomas was in the habit of addressing them only in Latin, a language he spoke with papal fluency and in which he did not stammer. Sooner or later they all resigned in despair, fearing he might be possessed: he might be spouting demonic instructions in Aramaic at them, for all they knew.”

MightLanguageTeacherHabitDespairSpokesLatinInstructionPossessedSooner Or LaterResignedPleadingDemonicFluency
Book:The Shadow Of The Wind
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“If there are some who talk the same language as myself, then why should I neglect their interests for the sake of some other group of people who are alien and remote? They have their own 'gods and idols' and we have nothing in common. ... If you try to please audiences, uncritically accepting their tastes, it can only mean that you have no respect for them: that you simply want to collect their money.”

PeopleIfsWantShouldTryingMeanLanguageInterestCommonAcceptingAudienceGroupsPleaseTasteSakeAliensNeglectIdolsShould INo Respect
Author:Andrei Tarkovsky
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“The absurdist is concerned with the search for meaning in the Universe. He believes this search to be meaningless--hence the disintegration of plot, character, and language in absurdist drama. Order is a falsehood that we, God, those who came before us, have imposed on a random universe. However, the absurdist is confronted with a curious paradox: though he believes the Universe to be meaningless, he cannot abandon the search for meaning--or he will die.”

BelieveCharacterOrderDiesUniverseLanguageDramaConcernedCuriousPlotAbandonParadoxMeaninglessFalsehoodSearch For MeaningDisintegrationThose Who Came Before Us
Author:Walter Wykes
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“Every few seconds a new book sees the light of day. Most of them will just be a part of the hum that makes us hard of hearing. Even the book is becoming an instrument of forgetting. A truly literary work comes into being as its creator's cry of protest against the forgetting that looms over him, over his predecessors and his contemporaries alike, and over his time, and the language he speaks. A literary work is something that defies death.”

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Author:Ivan Klíma
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“A reason to have computers understand natural language is that it's an extremely effective way of communicating. What I came to realize is that the success of the communication depends on the real intelligence on the part of the listener, and that there are many other ways of communicating with a computer that can be more effective, given that it doesn't have the intelligence.”

WayRealReasonLanguageGivenRealizingNaturalCommunicationDependsComputerCommunicateListenersReal Intelligence
Author:Terry Winograd
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“The sole constitutional office of language being to express our ideas and sentiments, it becomes more and more perfect and useful, the more effectually it subserves this sole end of its creation.”

IdeasEndsLanguagePerfectCreationOfficeSentimentsSole
Book:Memory and intellectual improvement applied to self-education and juvenile instruction ... Twenty-fifth edition, improved
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“In a very real sense, the Constitution is our compact with history . . . [but] the Constitution can maintain that compact and serve as the lodestar of our political system only if its terms are binding on us. To the extent we depart from the document's language and rely instead on generalities that we see written between the lines, we rob the Constitution of its binding force and give free reign to the fashions and passions of the day.”

IfsGivingRealPoliticalPassionLanguageForceTermLinesWrittenFashionConstitutionRelyDocumentsReignPolitical SystemsBindingCompactGeneralitiesBetween The Lines
Author:Alex Kozinski
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“We depend on our words... Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others. We must strive continually to extend the scope of our description, but in such a way that our messages do not thereby lose their objective or unambiguous character... We are suspended in language in such a way that we cannot say what is up and what is down. The word "reality" is also a word, a word which we must learn to use correctly.”

WayIdeasCharacterUseRealityLanguageLosesDependsMessagesTasksStriveCommunicateObjectivesDescriptionScopeDiscernmentOur WordsSuspended
Author:Niels Bohr
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“My friends: Music is the language of spirits. Its melody is like the frolicsome breeze that makes the strings quiver with love. When the gentle fingers of Music knock at the door of our feelings, they awaken memories that have long lain hidden in the depths of the Past. The sad strains of Music bring us mournful recollections; and her quiet strains bring us joyful memories. The sound of strings makes us weep at the departure of a dear one, or makes us smile at the peace God has bestowed upon us.”

LongFeelingsPastSpiritLanguageSoundMemoriesDoorsQuietMusic IsMy FriendsFingersDepthDearGentleStringsMelodyJoyfulStrainBreezeRecollectionDepartureQuiverDear OnesCreating Beauty
Author:Khalil Gibran
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“What does purpose mean? It means the deepest desire for our short lives to mean something. . . . To speak a language of purpose is to return to first principles and to be able to answer, in plain English, the plain questions of Why? Why should we chip in to help someone else? Why should we defer gratification? Why should we care about the long term? Why should we trust anyone who seems to be limiting our ability to do what we want?”

WantShouldFirstsMeanLongDoeHelpingSeemsCareAbleDesirePurposeSpeakLanguageTermAbilityAnswersPrinciplesReturnIntentionLong TermChipsGratificationShort LifePlain English
Author:Eric Liu
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“Indeed, what forces us at all to suppose that there is an essential opposition of 'true' and 'false'? Is it not sufficient to assume degrees of apparentness and, as it were, lighter and darker shadows and shades of appearance- different 'values', to use the language of painters?”

DifferentUseValuesLanguageForceEssentialsDegreesShadowAssumingAppearancePainterSufficientOppositionShadeRationalityLightersTrue And FalseDifferent Values
Book:Basic Writings of Nietzsche
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