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Vagueness Quotes

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Vagueness Quotes

“Like all great things which then become fashions, science, as now the universal stamp of approval, probably receives more abuse than any other field of study. Glaze the word itself over whatever vague ideology one may presume ratified, no matter the degree of pseudo-science or lack of scholarly credibility packaged within, and the many will consume it like gravy on a feast. My thought for the time is that as the promise of true science increases, so shall rise its many more superficial counterparts as provided by the agenda-bound trendies and hyper-ambitious laypersons to boot.”

TruthScienceFictionStudyMediaFashionIgnoranceTheoryDiscoveryLiesIntelligenceIdeologyPropagandaFakeExplorationSuperficialFactNon FictionSuperstitionValidationScientific MethodPseudoscienceLaymanVaguenessAgendaTrendPseudo ScienceRatificationVagueness Of Language
Book:Healology
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“In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of the political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.”

PeopleWritingFacesPoliticalLanguagePartySpeechArgumentIndiaAimBritishDefenseOur TimeBombsJapanSquaresAtomsBrutalSheerPolitical PartiesDroppingBeggingCloudyEuphemismAtom BombDeportationContinuanceVaguenessPolitical SpeechesPolitical LanguageBritish RuleSpeech And WritingBritish Rule In India
Book:Orwell and Politics
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“The more I read, the less I admire modern theology. the more I study the productions of the new schools of theological teachers, the more I marvel that men and women can be satisfied with such writings. There is a vagueness, a mistiness, a shallowness, an indistinctness, a superficiality, an aimlessness, a hollowness about the literature of the 'broader and kinder systems', as they are called, which to my mind stamps their origin on their face. They are of the earth, earthy.”

MenWritingMindSchoolEarthFacesLiteratureStudyTeacherModernMen And WomenProductionsSatisfiedTheologyAdmireStampsTheologicalKinderSuperficialityShallownessVaguenessHollownessAimlessness
Author:J. C. Ryle
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“The 'Little' or 'Barebones' Parliament, summoned by Oliver Cromwell to meet at Westminster on 4th July, 1653, after the dissolution of the remains of the Long Parliament, may have been an unpractical body, so far as the task of administration in troublous times was concerned. But it seems quite possible that the wealth of contumely and scorn which has been poured upon it was, originally, due quite as much to the fierce anger of vested interests against outspoken criticism, as to any real vagueness or want of practical wisdom in the plans of the House itself.”

WantMayLittlesLongHas BeensRealBodySeemsHouseInterestWealthPlansConcernedTasksCriticismRemainsDuesPracticalsAdministrationFierceParliamentScorn4th Of JulyJulyDissolutionOutspokenVested InterestsVaguenessWestminsterCromwell
Author:Edward Jenks
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“Is it true or false that Belfast is north of London? That the galaxy is the shape of a fried egg? That Beethoven was a drunkard? That Wellington won the battle of Waterloo? There are various degrees and dimensions of success in making statements: the statements fit the facts always more or less loosely, in different ways on different occasions for different intents and purposes.”

WayDifferentFactsTruthPurposeFitBattleShapesDegreesVariousLondonStatementsOccasionsDifferent WaysDimensionsEggsGalaxyDrunkardsVaguenessTrue Or FalseWaterlooWellingtonBelfast
Author:J. L. Austin
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“Conventions of generality and mathematical elegance may be just as much barriers to the attainment and diffusion of knowledge as may contentment with particularity and literary vagueness... It may well be that the slovenly and literary borderland between economics and sociology will be the most fruitful building ground during the years to come and that mathematical economics will remain too flawless in its perfection to be very fruitful.”

YearsWellsMayBuildingEconomicsPerfectionMathematicalContentmentBarriersConventionsSociologyEleganceAttainmentFlawlessGeneralitiesVaguenessDiffusion
Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
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“Kantians are saddled with absolutist views, Aristotelians are accused of vagueness, and there is almost no horror to which Consequentialists are innocent of, according to some critics. While all these families of views have been victimized in these ways, Consequentialists have gotten the worst of it. I think this may have something to do with the fact that Kant and Aristotle are acknowledged to be great philosophers, and we tend to read the greats sympathetically, while Consequentialism is a family of views not rooted in the work of a single great man to whom this kind of deference is owed.”

ThinkingMenWayKindMayHas BeensFactsViewsWorstHorrorCriticsPhilosopherInnocentGreat MenRootedAccusedDeferenceVaguenessGreat PhilosophersConsequentialism
Author:Dale Jamieson
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“You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin , or even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.”

KnowsHelpingCertainNatureKnowledgeToo MuchTreeIgnoranceFlowerTravelBirdEnjoymentPreciseMarginsCredulityKnowledge EducationEducation And KnowledgeVaguenessKnowledge LearningFlowering Trees
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Walt Whitman (Illustrated)
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“To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.”

WritingArtSpeakLanguageStruggleInvolvedMetaphorSentencesGreekPhrasesLatinWornObscurityLureAdjectivesWorn OutSpeak EnglishEncroachmentVaguenessLatin And Greek
Author:George Orwell
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“Suppose the looking glass smashes, the image disappears, and the romantic figure with the green of forest depths all about it is there no longer, but only that shell of a person which is seen by other people - what an airless, shallow, bald, prominent world it becomes! A world not to be lived in. As we face each other in omnibuses and underground railways we are looking into the mirror that accounts for the vagueness, the gleam of glassiness, in our eyes.”

PeopleWorldPersonsEyeFacesFiguresAccountsMirrorsGreenDepthGlassesDisappearForestsShellsShallowProminentGleamRailwayVagueness
Book:A arte da brevidade: Contos
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“We think of it as a sort of traffic accident of the heart. It is an emotion that scares us more than cruelty, more than violence, more than hatred. We allow ourselves to be foiled by the vagueness of the word. After all, love requires the utmost vulnerability. We equip someone with freshly sharpened knives; strip naked; then invite him to stand close. What could be scarier?”

ThinkingHeartEmotionViolenceHatredAccidentsNakedCrueltyVulnerabilityScareKnivesInvitesTrafficVagueness
Book:A Natural History of Love: Author of the National Bestseller A Natural History of the Senses
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“Fatalism, whose solving word in all crises of behavior is All striving is vain, will never reign supreme, for the impulse to take life strivingly is indestructible in the race. Moral creeds which speak to that impulse will be widely successful in spite of inconsistency, vagueness, and shadowy determination of expectancy. Man needs a rule for his will, and will invent one if one be not given him.”

IfsMenLifeNeedsSpeakGivenRaceMoralSuccessfulBehaviorDeterminationCrisisStriveSupremeVainImpulseSpiteFree WillCreedsReignInconsistencyIndestructibleExpectancyFatalismVagueness
Book:Essays in Popular Philosophy: Top Essays
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“I can't write from the subconscious actually, because a lot of the time when I co-write with other people, I'm writing for them as opposed to for myself. When it comes to lyrics, I tend to want to give them their voice, since it's most likely going to be on their record, or somebody else's record. And I find for more commerial-style music, people want simplicity, less vagueness, and less space to fill between the lines, so to speak. So I can't be quite as ethereal and mystical.”

PeopleWantGivingWritingI CanSpeakVoiceLinesSpaceRecordsStyleSimplicitySongwritingSubconsciousMysticalEtherealBetween The LinesVagueness
Author:Gary Louris
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