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Usage Quotes

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Usage Quotes

“If it is possible to have a linear unit that depends on no other quantity, it would seem natural to prefer it. Moreover, a mensural unit taken from the earth itself offers another advantage, that of being perfectly analogous to all the real measurements that in ordinary usage are also made upon the earth, such as the distance between two places or the area of some tract, for example. It is far more natural in practice to refer geographical distances to a quadrant of a great circle than to the length of a pendulum.”

IfsMadeTwoRealSeemsEarthScienceNaturalPracticeTakenExampleDependsOffersOrdinaryAdvantageAreasDistanceDefinitionsCirclesLengthQuantityUnitsMeasurementLinearUsagePendulums
Author:Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet
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“The usage of the words "public" and "public sphere" betrays a multiplicity of concurrent meanings. Their origins go back to various historical phases and, when applied synchronically to the conditions of a bourgeois society that is industrially advanced and constituted as a social-welfare state, they fuse into a clouded amalgam. Yet the very conditions that make the inherited language seem inappropriate appear to require these words, however confused their employment.”

StatesSeemsLanguageSocialConditionsHistoricalVariousEmploymentWelfareConfusedSpheresBetrayPhasesBourgeoisInappropriateMultiplicityUsageWelfare StateFuseCloudedSocial Welfare
Author:Jurgen Habermas
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“Inevitably I came to associate any wine I met with a specific place and a particular slant of history. I learned to perceive more than could be deduced from an analysis of the physical elements in the glass. For me, an important part of the pleasure of wine is its reflection of the total environment that produced it. If I find in a wine no hint of where it was grown, no mark of the summer when the fruit ripened, and no indication of the usages common among those who made it, I am frustrated and disappointed. Because that is what a good, honest wine should offer.”

IfsShouldMadeImportantPleasureCommonEnvironmentHonestParticularMetsOffersElementsSummerReflectionMarkWineFruitGlassesMade ItPerceiveAnalysisDisappointedFrustratedAssociatesHintsIndicationUsage
Book:A Vineyard in My Glass
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“Once, BBC television had echoed BBC radio in being a haven for standard English pronunciation. Then regional accents came in: a democratic plus. Then slipshod usage came in: an egalitarian minus. By now slovenly grammar is even more rife on the BBC channels than on ITV. In this regard a decline can be clearly charted... If the BBC, once the guardian of the English language, has now become its most implacable enemy, let us at least be grateful when the massacre is carried out with style.”

IfsLanguageEnemyStyleHavensTelevisionStandardsRegardGratefulDemocraticRadioPlusDeclineAccentsBe GratefulGrammarGuardianEnglish LanguageUsageMassacresMinusPronunciationStandard English
Author:Clive James
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“The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain like a watch. (You perceive I employ a capital initial in the pronoun referring to the Deity; don't you think there is a slight dash of flunkeyism in that usage?).”

ThinkingMenHeartReasonBrainWatchesAtheismMassBottomPerceiveFancyDislikeDistrustInitialsDeitiesReferringUsageFear GodPronouns
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)
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“Obviously, if theism is a belief in a God and atheism is a lack of a belief in a God, no third position or middle ground is possible. A person can either believe or not believe in a God. Therefore, our previous definition of atheism has made an impossibility out of the common usage of agnosticism to mean "neither affirming nor denying a belief in God."”

IfsBelieveMeanPersonsMadeBeliefCommonAtheismMiddlePositionThirdsDefinitionsPositive AtheismImpossibilityAgnosticismBelief In GodUsageTheismAffirmingMiddle Ground
Book:An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism
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“When you depart from standard usage, it should be deliberate and not an accidental lapse. Like a poet who breaks the rules of poetry for creative effect, this only works when you know and respect the rule you are breaking. If you have never heard of the rules you are breaking, you have no right to do so, and you are likely to come off like a buffoon or a barbarian. Breaking rules, using slang and archaic language can be effective, but it is just as likely to give you an audience busy with wincing.”

IfsKnowsGivingShouldLanguageBreakAudienceCreativeHeardEffectsPoetStandardsBusyDeliberateBarbariansUsageLapsesSlangBuffoonsBreaking Rules
Author:N.D. Wilson
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“great artists can be uncertain. Of course they are while strugggling to find solutions. Tolstoi's scripts are almost indecipherable. Emily Dickinson provided four or more alternates for every word; Beethoven wrestled with endings to the point of exhaustion; in our day Jerome Robbins and his lack of decision are a byword in the dance profession. But all of these knew very well what they did not want, and what they did not want was the current coin, the well-worn usage. What they wanted was something newly experienced, and therefore unknown and hard to attain.”

WantWellsHardWantedArtistCoursesDecisionFourSolutionsScriptsCurrentsProfessionSomething NewWornUncertainCoinsGreat ArtGreat ArtistExhaustionEmilyUsage
Author:Agnes de Mille
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“conventional English usage, including the generic use of masculine-gender words, often obscures the actions, the contributions, and sometimes the very presence of women. Turning our backs on that insight is an option, of course, but it is an option like teaching children that the world is flat.”

WorldChildrenSometimesUseActionCoursesTeachingIncludingInsightGenderContributionFlatsConventionalMasculineUsageTeaching ChildrenGenericWorld Is Flat
Book:The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing
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“No product is an island. A product is more than the product. It is a cohesive, integrated set of experiences. Think through all of the stages of a product or service - from initial intentions through final reflections, from first usage to help, service, and maintenance. Make them all work together seamlessly. That's systems thinking.”

ThinkingFirstsHelpingTogetherStageProductsReflectionIntentionFinalsIslandsWorking TogetherInitialsIntegratedMaintenanceUsageSystems Thinking
Author:Donald A. Norman
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“I use throughout the term 'liberal' in the original, nineteenth-century sense in which it is still current in Britain. In current American usage it often means very nearly the opposite of this. It has been part of the camouflage of leftish movements in this country, helped by muddleheadedness of many who really believe in liberty, that 'liberal' has come to mean the advocacy of almost every kind of government control.”

BelieveKindMeanHas BeensStillsCountryUseGovernmentTermLibertyCenturyMovementEconomicsOppositesOriginalsCurrentsBritainNineteenth CenturyAdvocacyUsageCamouflage
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“First, the constitution ought to secure a genuine and guard against a select militia, by providing that the militia shall always be kept well organized, armed, and disciplined, and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms; and that all regulations tending to render this general militia useless and defenceless, by establishing select corps of militia, or distinct bodies of military men, not having permanent interests and attachments in the community to be avoided.”

MenFirstsWellsStatesBodyPastInterestCommunityMilitaryArmsOughtCapableConstitutionGenuineSecureUselessPermanentOrganizedAttachmentRegulationProvidingAvoidedSelectUsageMilitiaBearing ArmsDefenselessMilitary Man
Author:Patrick Henry
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“"But even if he has been wicked," pursued Rose, "think how young he is; think that he may never have known a mother's love, or the comfort of a home; that ill-usage and blows, or the want of bread, may have driven him to herd with men who have forced him to guilt. Aunt, dear aunt, for mercy's sake, think of this, before you let them drag this sick child to a prison, which in any case must be the grave of all his chances of amendment."”

IfsThinkingMenWantMayChildrenHas BeensHomeYoungMotherNatureChanceKnownCasesComfortMercySickPrisonGuiltRoseSakeDearIllBlowDrivenGravesBreadWickedAmendmentsDragAuntPursuedHerdsUsageMother's LoveSick Children
Book:The Charles Dickens Collection Volume One: Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and Bleak House
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“All Catholics must make themselves felt as active elements in daily political life in the countries where they live. They must penetrate, wherever possible, in the administration of civil affairs; must constantly exert the utmost vigilance and energy to prevent the usages of liberty from going beyond the limits fixed by God's law. All Catholics should do all in their power to cause the constitutions of states and legislation to be modeled on the principles of the true Church.”

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Author:Pope Leo XIII
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“If you set yourself a goal for energy usage in your house, if you have to look at a graph on your phone, you probably won't change your behavior. But if you have a clock on the wall that changes color from green to red if you're using more energy than you've planned, then that actually can change your behavior. There are a lot of things to be done in that world that actually have an impact on our daily lives.”

IfsWorldLooksDoneHouseEnergyGoalColorWallBehaviorRedGreenImpactPhonesClockDaily LifeUsageGraphs
Author:Werner Vogels
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