“The book says [Lincoln in the Bardo],"I really need this sci-fi device of a ghost inhabiting another person." You say okay kind of begrudgingly. So the structure seemed informed by need and efficiency.” NeedsKindPersonsBookOkayStructureGhostDevicesSci FiEfficiency Author:George Saunders
“The Egba kingdom was one of the very last to be ceded to the British protectorate. It remained almost an independent entity within what is now known as Nigeria, simply because of its own traditional structure of governance.” LastsKnownIndependentStructureBritishKingdomsTraditionalEntityGovernanceNigeria Author:Wole Soyinka
“The process of decolonisation in Nigeria was a very untidy one. The British, when they were leaving finally and knew exactly who they wanted to take over, they wanted pliant government, figures, structures, they wanted to continue indirectly in effect their control over much of their colonial possessions and this was one of the very early causes of conflict.” GovernmentWantedCausesProcessEffectsFiguresConflictStructureLeavingPossessionBritishNigeriaCauses Of Conflict Author:Wole Soyinka
“The British inclined more towards the feudal mentality, the feudal structures rather than the more radical progressive elements who would re-shape society and institute pretty egalitarian systems of governance with opportunity for even disadvantaged people and so I found that decolonisation was not just the end of political struggle in Nigeria.” PeopleEndsPoliticalFoundOpportunityStruggleShapesElementsStructureBritishRadicalProgressiveMentalityGovernanceInstituteNigeriaDisadvantagedPolitical Struggle Author:Wole Soyinka
“To sustain a governing majority, that requires an ability for Republicans and Democrats to find some common ground. And right now, the structure of the system is such where it makes it really hard for people to work together.” PeopleHardTogetherAbilityCommonRepublicanRight NowMajorityStructureDemocratWorking TogetherGoverningCommon Ground Author:Barack Obama
“The intrinsic social structure, the family structure and so forth, is certainly in a very bad state. And I think that this is showing up in productivity. I think part of the reason, and I can't prove this, we're seeing a decline in some places is the breakup of the family, which is partly the result of an extreme form of individualism.” ThinkingI CanStatesReasonFormSocialResultsSeeingProveStructureExtremesProductivityBreakupIndividualismDeclineShowing UpSocial Structure Author:Kenneth Arrow
“We have introduced equity into our life, including a uniform educational system. We have also introduced a Bill of Rights, which is not just a piece of paper, but a living document because we have created structures that are totally independent of the government and that can overrule the government, even the president.” GovernmentPresidentPiecesOur LivesRightsPaperIndependentBillsStructureIncludingEducationalUniformsDocumentsEquityBill Of RightsEducational System Author:Nelson Mandela
“It seems to me now that the deep structures [in writing] are often subconscious and set in childhood.” WritingSeemsChildhoodStructureSubconscious Author:Zadie Smith
“For me, [deep structures] might be something very simply to do with the split in my family. That's why I'm always thinking about opposites. It's so childish, really, but that might be simply what it is.” ThinkingMightMy FamilyOppositesStructureSplitsAlways Thinking Author:Zadie Smith
“I was thinking about the generation before us, like John Barth and all of those pomo dudes who had that idea of, instead of hiding the structure and making it look organic and natural, we're going to put the structure on the outside. But most of the time, at least for me, all I could attend to [in Swing Time] was that act of structural self-consciousness.” ThinkingLooksIdeasSelfNaturalConsciousnessGenerationsStructureHidingSwingsSelf Consciousness Author:Zadie Smith
“That kind of unease, that melancholy, is of course partly my interpretation, but partly, I think, it's something that's really there [in America] as well. It resonates with this moment and the sort of alienation from the power structure a lot of people feel, as well as a certain amount of desperation, in the hope of disrupting the power structure so they can live better lives. I think in those ways, it's intimately connected to today.” PeopleThinkingWayFeelsWellsKindMomentsTodayAmericaCertainCoursesAmountStructureConnectedInterpretationMelancholyDesperationBetter LifeAlienation Author:Peter van Agtmael
“Trump has his own audience, which is in many cases as big as or bigger than the media covering him. He doesn't need the media. He enjoys them being around. He likes toying with them. He likes being provocative around them. To him, the media is a plaything. To the Republican and Democrat establishments, the media holds coequal position in the entire power structure of the ruling class.” NeedsBigsEnjoyClassCasesAudienceMediaPositionTrumpRepublicanBiggerStructureDemocratLikesEstablishmentRulingCoveringProvocative Author:Rush Limbaugh
“As far as outlining is concerned, I don't outline humor. I might right down a word or two to remind myself of a punch line I thought of, but the actual structure of a piece I really don't. I don't think it would really help me because for me the process is joke, joke, joke, joke.” ThinkingTwoHelpingMightProcessLinesPiecesJokesConcernedStructureHelp MeOutlinesOutlining Author:Dave Barry
“The story of Taliban recovery and resurgence begins in the places where they took refuge after 2001. And as long as those leadership structures and training structures operate outside of Afghanistan with relative impunity, the conflict will continue.” LongStoriesConflictTrainingStructureRecoveryAfghanistanRelativeRefugeTalibanImpunityResurgence Author:Chris Alexander
“We need to change the power structure in America, we need to end the political oligarchy.” NeedsEndsAmericaPoliticalStructureNeed A ChangeOligarchy Author:Bernie Sanders
“Everything that makes a society run is broken in Iraq. The only real structure is the people's own sense of themselves as Iraqis, which was very strong. They're a proud people, and they trace their historic roots way, way back.” PeopleWayRealRunningStrongBrokenProudRootsStructureIraqVery StrongHistoric Author:Bruce Cockburn
“The old battle between Christian Democrats and Social Democrats is now meaningless, not least because the social structures that underlay those parties, the church and the unions, have faded away. Nationalists and populists understood this change earlier; now the rest of the political world needs to understand that the political lines have been redrawn and it's time to change.” WorldNeedsHas BeensChristianPoliticalSocialChurchLinesPartyBattleUnderstoodStructureUnionsDemocratMeaninglessFadedPopulistSocial Structure Author:Anne Applebaum
“Savant syndrome and autism, I think, are not disorders of brain structure, but they're disorders of brain function.” ThinkingBrainFunctionStructureDisorderAutismSyndromesSavantsBrain Function Author:Darold Treffert
“What has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society than with the language we use to justify it. In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don't. Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color "criminals" and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind.” PeopleUseLeftLanguageSocialJusticeRaceBehindsPracticeChangedColorStructureCriminalsDiscriminationLabelsErasRelyOur SocietyJustifyContemptCollapseJustificationLeft BehindCrowJustice SystemExclusionCriminal JusticeJim CrowCriminal Justice System Author:Michelle Alexander
“Certainly youth of color, particularly those in ghetto communities, find themselves born into the cage. They are born into a community in which the rules, laws, policies, structures of their lives virtually guarantee that they will remain trapped for life. It begins at a very early age when their parents themselves are either behind bars or locked in a permanent second-class status and cannot afford them the opportunities they otherwise could.” AgeLawOpportunityParentBornCommunityBehindsClassPolicyYouthColorStructureBarsPermanentGuaranteesLockedTrappedCagesGhettoGuarantees ThatClass Status Author:Michelle Alexander
“As a writer, I know that - you write a first draft and then put it in a drawer. The longer I can put it in a drawer, the better off I am. So I structure my writing so that things can sit.” KnowsWritingFirstsI CanStructureBetter OffDrawers Author:Malcolm Gladwell
“Transience is what is normal. The problem is that we are busily trying to create political structures and cultural expressions that deny that and to deny that is to deny the basic idea of what is human.” TryingHumansIdeasProblemPoliticalExpressionNormalStructureDenyTransience Author:Mohsin Hamid
“I'm you and you are me. I'm a man and you're a man. When people understand the more they know Self, the real Inner Self of themselves it's the same physical structure you've got. The same things you deal with I deal with. Everything derives from the mind. What's funny is the mind is the hardest question and I guess that's why I'm always writing about it.” PeopleKnowsMenWritingMindRealSelfDealsStructureHardestInner Self Author:Rakim
“There's a certain age when your height stops growing and you cannot change that. This sort of body growth cannot be fixed. But there are many things that can be changed. You might have a small body structure but there are opportunities to make yourself very fit and healthy. So we'll have to work hard in many aspects.” HardBodyMightAgeCertainOpportunityGrowthGrowingChangedHard WorkFitHealthyAspectStructureFixedHeight Author:Aung San Suu Kyi
“Burma is not yet a full-fledged democracy. We have started working on the road to full democracy. We have a lot of things to do in order to build a democratic structure and to be become a full-fledged democracy.” OrderDemocracyStructureDemocraticThings To DoBurma Author:Aung San Suu Kyi
“Man is a thinking being. The way he thinks is related to society, politics, economics, and history and is also related to very general and universal categories and formal structures. But thought is something other than societal relations.” ThinkingMenWayEconomicsUniversalRelationStructureRelatedCategoriesFormal Author:Michel Foucault
“My feeling is that a human being or any complex organism has a system of cognitive structures that develop much in the way the physical organs of the body develop. That is, in their fundamental character they are innate; their basic form is determined by the genetic structure of the organism. Of course, they grow under particular environmental conditions, assuming a specific form that admits of some variation. Much of what is distinctive among human beings is a specific manner in which a variety of shared cognitive structures develop.” WayHumansCharacterFeelingsBodyFormCoursesGrowsHuman BeingsConditionsParticularFundamentalsStructureAssumingComplexesEnvironmentalDeterminedVarietyOrgansOrganismsInnateVariationCognitiveDistinctive Author:Noam Chomsky
“In studying language we can discover many basic properties of this cognitive structure, its organization, and also the genetic predispositions that provide the foundation for its development. So in this respect, linguistics, first of all, tries to characterize a major feature of human cognitive organization. And second, I think it may provide a suggestive model for the study of other cognitive systems. And the collection of these systems is one aspect of human nature.” ThinkingTryingFirstsHumansMayLanguageStudyHuman NatureDevelopmentMajorsModelsAspectOrganizationFoundationStructurePropertyFeaturesCollectionsCognitiveLinguistics Author:Noam Chomsky
“Human physical structures and intellectual structures are generally studied in different ways. The assumption is that physical structures are genetically inherited and intellectual structures are learned. I think that this assumption is wrong. None of these structures is learned. They all grow; they grow in comparable ways; their ultimate forms are heavily dependent on genetic predispositions.” ThinkingWayHumansDifferentFormGrowsIntellectualUltimateStructureDifferent WaysAssumptionDependent Author:Noam Chomsky
“If we understood, as we do not, the physical bases for intellectual structures, I have little doubt that we would find structures in the brain for social interactions, or language, or analysis of personality - a whole variety of systems developed on the basis of a specific biological endowment.” IfsLittlesWholeLanguageSocialBrainDoubtPersonalityIntellectualUnderstoodBasesStructureVarietyAnalysisInteractionEndowmentSocial Interaction Author:Noam Chomsky
“I don't think all thinking is a kind of rational structure. But I don't think it is correct to identify the rational-nonrational dichotomy with the linguistic-nonlinguistic dichotomy.” ThinkingKindStructureRationalDichotomy Author:Noam Chomsky
“In fact, by universal grammar I mean just that system of principles and structures that are the prerequisites for acquisition of language, and to which every language necessarily conforms.” MeanFactsLanguagePrinciplesUniversalStructureConformGrammarAcquisitionPrerequisites Author:Noam Chomsky
“You can imagine a different world in which a number of species developed with different genetically determined linguistic systems. It hasn't happened in evolution. What has happened is that one species has developed, and the genetic structure of this species happens to involve a variety of intricate abstract principles of linguistic organization that, therefore, necessarily constrain every language, and, in fact, create the basis for learning language as a way of organizing experience rather than constituting something learned from experience.” WorldWayDifferentFactsHappensLanguageNumbersPrinciplesImagineHappenedEvolutionOrganizationBasesStructureSpeciesDeterminedVarietyAbstractDifferent WorldsIntricateConstrainLearning Language Author:Noam Chomsky
“Physics and those parts of other fields that grow out of physics - chemistry, the structure of big molecules - in those domains, there is a lot of progress. In many other domains, there is very little progress in developing real scientific understanding.” LittlesRealBigsGrowsUnderstandingProgressFieldsStructurePhysicsDevelopingChemistryDomainMolecules Author:Noam Chomsky
“There is no evolutionary pressure to create minds capable of forming sciences; it just happened. Evolutionary pressure has not led to higher rates of reproduction for people capable of solving scientific problems or creating new scientific ideas. So if, in fact, the science-forming capacities evolved for other reasons, it would not be too surprising if those particular structures that have developed proved to be rather special in their nature, reflecting the contingencies of their evolution or the working of physical law.” PeopleIfsMindIdeasReasonFactsProblemLawHappenedSpecialParticularEvolutionHigherCreatingCapableCapacityPressureStructureRateSurprisingReflectingReproductionContingency Author:Noam Chomsky
“We naturally assume that our mental structures are universal. But I suppose an outside biologist looking at us would see something very different. He would see that, like other organisms, we have a narrow sphere within which we are very good, but that sphere is very limited. And that, in fact, the very achievements we can have within that sphere are related to lack of achievements in other spheres.” DifferentFactsAchievementUniversalStructureAssumingVery GoodRelatedSpheresOrganismsBiologist Author:Noam Chomsky
“In our case [the United States] it happens to be basically corporate structure. Much of the population is going to be harmed by that. Those policies are designed to turn state power into an instrument that works for the wealthy. Maybe there are some crumbs for the rest of the population, maybe not. But that's given.” StatesHappensTurnsGivenUnitedCasesUnited StatesPolicyInstrumentsStructurePopulationCorporateWealthyCrumbs Author:Noam Chomsky
“In America, we need to develop communitywide structures of democratic ownership, we need to work out cooperative development, we need to work out participatory management, we need new ecological strategies developed at the local city, state, regional level.” NeedsStatesAmericaLevelsCitiesDevelopmentManagementStrategyStructureDemocraticWork OutLocalsOwnershipEcologicalCooperatives Author:Gar Alperovitz
“For 40 years, my argument has been that democratizing ownership of wealth has been the key to egalitarian society and the goals of egalitarian society. But you start at the local level, both at the workplace, community and other institutions and you reconstruct the egalitarian democratized structure as well as participatory structure. And as this happens, we learn more how to move toward the vision that is much larger than just the community level.” YearsWellsHas BeensHappensMovingGoalCommunityWealthLevelsVisionKeysArgumentInstitutionsStructureLocalsOwnershipWorkplace Author:Gar Alperovitz
“Worker-owned co-ops, on their own, floating in the market, tend to replicate the behavior of worker-owned capitalists in some circumstances. They sometimes develop positive participatory schemes, sometimes not. We know from the studies of worker-owned plywood companies in the US, they can tend to develop conservative attitudes, not socialist attitudes. So even though I'm an advocate of further democratization of the workplace, we also need to be building larger structures.” KnowsNeedsSometimesAttitudeCompanyStudyBuildingCircumstancesBehaviorStructureWorkersConservativeCapitalistSchemesSocialistWorkplaceFloatingReplicateDemocratization Author:Gar Alperovitz
“The more we talk about kindness in business, the more we'll break through the hard structures that have defined business and alienated women from getting to the top.” HardBreakKindnessStructureDefinedBreak Through Author:Mary Portas
“Feudalism is an economic system where a few people own all the land and the others have no option but to be serfs on such a feudal estate. We now condemn feudalism. We condemn not merely the feudal lords but we condemn the whole structure of rules that sustained feudalism. I am asking people to think similarly about the world economy.” PeopleThinkingWorldWholeLordEconomyEconomicLandAskingStructureEstatesEconomic SystemsWorld EconomyFeudalismSerfs Author:Thomas Pogge
“Domestic power structures are shaped in good part by global arrangements.” StructureArrangements Author:Thomas Pogge
“The domestic power structure - how power is exercised in the United States, for instance - greatly influences the structure of international institutions. So, for example, the Clinton administration was very influential in shaping the WTO treaty, and, because of the way the US domestic political system works, this meant that corporations could use the US government to wield a huge influence.” WayStatesUseGovernmentPoliticalUnitedUnited StatesInfluenceExampleHugeInstitutionsStructureClintonInternationalInstanceAdministrationCorporationsInfluentialTreatiesPolitical Systems Author:Thomas Pogge
“There are huge political problems in Germany, but German economic power is something which was bound to happen. The way out of this situation is through the further democratization of the European Union and a changing of its structures.” WayProblemHappensPoliticalSituationEconomicHugeStructureUnionsBoundsGermanyEuropean UnionEconomic PowerDemocratization Author:Tariq Ali
“In the same way that we have a body and a soul and a spirit, our soul can't walk in the street without our body - we would be dead then. Religion is the same way; it has to have a body, it has to have a form, it has to have structure. Without that, the soul cannot be prepared to follow the tariqah.” WaySoulBodyWould BeFormSpiritWalksStreetsStructurePreparedBe Prepared Author:Seyyed Hossein Nasr
“There are millions and millions of Sufis who have existed in Islamic history and have the deepest impact on every aspect of Islamic culture and civilization to philosophy to art to science to social structure to economics who have not met the destiny of al-Hallaj.” ArtPhilosophyCultureSocialDestinyMillionsCivilizationMetsAspectEconomicsImpactStructureIslamicAlsSufiSocial StructureIslamic Culture Author:Seyyed Hossein Nasr
“I found out later on that was not true, that life drawing tells you a great deal about rhythm, about the structure of a human being or any animate object, and this could be directly translated into thinking about proportion and accent, rhythm in a pot form.” ThinkingHumansFormFoundHuman BeingsDealsObjectsStructureDrawingRhythmProportionPotAccents Author:Warren MacKenzie
“LSD is really just a small chemical modification of a very old sacred drug of Mexico. LSD belongs, therefore, by its chemical structure and by its activity, in the group of the magic plants of Mesoamerica. It does not occur in nature as such, but it represents just a small chemical variation of natural material.” DoeNaturalMagicGroupsMaterialsDrugActivitySacredStructurePlantChemicalsMexicoVariationLsdModificationNatural Materials Author:Albert Hofmann
“I don't like to think in terms of writing ten or twelve pages a day. Usually I'm writing a scene, and it's always with the idea, "I wonder what is going to happen." Or sometimes I write about something that affected me emotionally the day before and that I don't want to lose. I'm very unorganized at first; but finally it comes into a structure where consciously I'm working on a novel per se.” ThinkingWantWritingFirstsIdeasSometimesHappensTermLosesWonderNovelSceneTenPagesStructureAffectedTwelve Author:Robert Cormier