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Pedantic Quotes

“We do not need French post-structuralism, whose pedantic jargon, clumsy convolutions, and prissy abstractions have spread throughout academe and the arts and are now blighting the most promising minds of the next generation. This is a major crisis if there ever was one, and every sensible person must help bring it to an end.”

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Book:Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays
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“In fact, on one occasion, a rather pedantic experimental psychologist was telling him about a long, complicated experiment he had done, incorporating all the proper controls and using considerable technical virtuosity. When he saw Crick's exasperated expression he said, "but Dr. Crick, we have got it right - we know it's right," Crick's response was, "The point is not whether it's right. The point is: does it even matter whether its right or wrong?"”

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Author:Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
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“To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as anyone would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.”

WritingChoicesSpeakForceCommonStyleConversationGenuineSettingFamiliarCommandSettingsEaseDiscourseThoroughPedantic
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
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“My self . . . is a dramatic ensemble. Here a prophetic ancestor makes his appearance. Here a brutal hero shouts. Here an alcoholic bon vivant argues with a learned professor. Here a lyric muse, chronically love-struck, raises her eyes to heaven. Her papa steps forward, uttering pedantic protests. Here the indulgent uncle intercedes. Here the aunt babbles gossip. Here the maid giggles lasciviously. And I look upon it all with amazement, the sharpened pen in my left hand.”

LooksSelfHandsEyeLeftHeavenStepsHeroRaisesAppearanceArguingDramaticLook UpProtestPensGossipProfessorsAncestorBrutalMuseHer EyesUnclesAuntAlcoholicsMaidsSteps ForwardAmazementPropheticEnsembleGigglePapaLeft HandPedantic
Book:The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918
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“We think that play and fairytales belong to childhood - how shortsighted that is! As though we would want at any time in our life to live without play and fairytales! We give these things other names, to be sure, and feel differently about them, but precisely this is the evidence that they are the same things, for the child too regards play as his work and fairy tales as his truth. The brevity of life ought to preserve us from a pedantic division of life into different stages - as though each brought something new.”

ThinkingWantGivingFeelsChildrenDifferentPlayNamesOur LivesChildhoodStageOughtEvidenceRegardTalesPreservesFairySomething NewDivisionFairy TaleFairytaleBrevityPedanticBrevity Of Life
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“I think when people try to use their art for political views, I think they're art becomes smaller, less interesting. And so for me, as an artist, I'm trying to speak about things in a universal way and not be pedantic or small-minded and try to convince other people of my political views. But having said that, every day I live in sort of complete terror because of what I read in the newspaper and what is going on in the world. I'm constantly, as I think many of us are, overwhelmed by the sort of, mass psychosis that's occurring.”

PeopleThinkingWorldWayTryingArtSaidUsePoliticalArtistSpeakInterestingViewsMassArt IsUniversalTerrorNewspapersConvinceOverwhelmedPsychosisPolitical ViewPedantic
Author:Sean Lennon
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“Some people feel that it's controversial if I say that because my dad is known as a political artist. But I don't really believe that he was a political artist. I think some of his songs were political, and I think they were incredible because he was able to make art that was political and that wasn't pedantic. But I think he was unique in being able to do that.”

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Author:Sean Lennon
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“People formerly seemed unable to evaluate a woman's c.v. or to accept a range of personal and communicative styles from the exuberant and confident to the sober and pedantic. It's much better than it was, and a number of male philosophers have been extraordinarily helpful in detecting and criticising everyday sexism in the profession.”

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Author:Catherine Wilson
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“I've been accused of being a little pedantic here and there, but I don't buy that criticism. I'm telling it like I see it. You don't have to buy it. You don't have to like it. You don't have to listen to it at all. I'm not trying to convince people of things, other than the fact that I'm trying to make as vivid as I can my own feelings and experiences.”

PeopleTryingLittlesI CanFactsFeelingsMy OwnCriticismConvinceAccusedVividHere And TherePedantic
Author:Bruce Cockburn
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“I am aware of the technical distinction between ‘less’ and ‘fewer’, and between ‘uninterested’ and ‘disinterested’ and ‘infer’ and ‘imply’, but none of these are of importance to me. ‘None of these are of importance,’ I wrote there, you’ll notice – the old pedantic me would have insisted on “none of them is of importance”. Well I’m glad to say I’ve outgrown that silly approach to language”

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Author:Stephen Fry
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“Busy old fool, unruly sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through curtains, call on us? Must to thy motions lovers'seasons run? Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide Late schoolboys, and sour prentices, Go tell court-huntsmen that the King will ride, Call countryants to harvest offices; Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.”

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Author:John Donne
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“Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing; but this is a mistake. Mere bald fabrication is useless; the veriest tyro can manage that. It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general air of scrupulous - almost of pedantic - veracity, that the experienced angler is seen.”

PeopleLyingAbilityMistakeAirMereDetailsImpressionManageUselessFishingProbabilityFishermanBlushingFabricationVeracityAnglersPedantic
Book:Jerome K. Jerome: 14 Books in 1
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“Conversation! Supple sentences, with first and second meanings and overtones beyond, outrageous challenges with cleverly planned slip-points, rebuttals of elegant brevity; deceptions and guiles, patient explanations of the obvious, fleeting allusions to the unthinkable. As a preliminary, the conversationalist must gauge the mood, the intelligence and the verbal facility of the company. To this end, a few words of pedantic exposition often prove invaluable.”

FirstsEndsChallengesCompanyConversationProvePatientObviousSentencesMoodDeceptionExplanationSlipsElegantFleetingFacilityOutrageousUnthinkableBrevityFew WordsInvaluableGaugesAllusionSuppleGuilePedanticRebuttal
Author:Jack Vance
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“I believe that science fiction is as profound as you want it to be or it can be very simple entertainment, and I'm all for very simple entertainment. Every now and then we all need to come home, veg-out, watch something and not think too deeply about it. It's what you want it to be. We tend to steer clear of being pedantic; it's entertainment first, otherwise we'd be on a lecture circuit.”

ThinkingWantNeedsFirstsBelieveHomeI BelieveSimpleFictionWatchesClearScience FictionProfoundEntertainmentWhat You WantComing HomeNow And ThenLecturesSteersCircuitsPedantryPedantic
Author:Joe Flanigan
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