30 quotes found
"Philosophum non facit barba."
"Words are like little gods. The pronoun "him" instead of "her," if used often enough, can disuade a girl from science or math. The words you use determine the density of gray matter in your brain. They affect your political leanings, influence how you see reality, determine your level of confidence and thus, define what it means to be you. That's what words do."
"As important as your words are in shaping your behavior, they are even more important in the way they shape the behavior of others. Your manner of speaking is, if nothing else, the central factor upon which people form assumptions about you. Whatever is your ultimate goal in life, chances are good you're going to have to talk your way to it. And if greatness is your goal, well-spoken words are essential. Think about it. From Homer to Hemingway, Lincoln, Churchill, King, and both Obamas - their words are why we know them."
"Common Sense and Education: The more you think you have of one, the less you think you need of the other."
"The foolish read to escape reality; the wise surrender to it."
"Good writers indulge their audience; great writers know better."
"The educated don't get that way by memorizing facts; they get that way by respecting them."
"Nuance: for best results apply with sledge hammer."
"Courage is the ability to ignore your options."
"If you are your own worst enemy, don't do yourself any favors."
"Fear not the tyrant; fear the tyrant's wake."
"Cultural pluralism is the only thing we all have in common."
"Science embraces facts and debates opinion; religion embraces opinion and debates the facts."
"Big professorial words are good to know but not necessarily use at every turn. Try not to serve vichyssois to a coal miner, and do not give Cheerios to the queen of England. Neither will be amused."
"Democracy: The last thing it sees is a clear blue sky."
"They say democracy dies in darkness. At least that’s what the Washington Post has been telling us anyway, ever since MAGA rose to power in 2017 – our daily reminder that without a free press to shine its light on wayward politicians, democracy will eventually succumb to bad actors like Trump and his pro-Putin enablers in Congress."
"Dark blue journalism is more insidious and dangerous than yellow journalism because it’s subtle and slick and classy, in the same way that subtle and slick and classy racism is more effective than a mulleted screamer with a pointy white hood and a tiki torch he got on sale at Home Depot. Dark blue journalism is respectable because it’s perpetrated by respectable journalists who probably don’t shop at Home Depot, folks who move with ease in the bluest of circles, like Anderson Cooper, Chris Licht, Carrie Budoff Brown, and Leslie Stahl. Inevitably, in today’s ratings-obsessed newsrooms, for every Scott Pelly or Margaret Brennan or Abby Phillip with the backbone to say no, there’s a Kaitlin Collins with the ambition to say yes, to platform a demagogue in the name of “fairness to both sides.” At least that’s what she tells herself – presumably - in makeup before going on air:"
"But do they? Do they really? Russian disinformation deserves its rightful place in our American town hall conversation? That’s the hill you’re planting your fair and balanced flag on? Liz Cheney deserves to be heard. Adam Kinzinger deserves to be heard. Mitt Romney deserves to be heard. Marjorie Taylor Green does not."
"And let’s stop calling them never-Trumpers and start calling them what they are: decent conservatives."
"Dark blue journalism is going to get a lot of people killed if it delivers the Electoral College to MAGA in November. And the violence won’t start with Seal Team Six knocking on Rachel Maddow’s door. Instead, Trump will follow his Russian mentor’s playbook by giving all the Proud Boys out there the only thing they need - a wink and a nod. These are the kinds of people who would drag a 14-month-old puppy to a gravel pit and blow its brains out for Christ’s sake. These are the kinds of people who would murder 100,000 Ukrainians just to make Russia’s coin-operated grocery carts great again."
"Here’s the point. We are on our own. There isn’t going to be a Woodward and Bernstein to turn darkness to light and save the day this time. The world just doesn’t work that way anymore. If anything, there’s too much light, and it’s blinding us to the danger we’re in. For the news media has lit up our politics like the clear blue sky – less in the name of fair and objective journalism, and more in the name of Arthur C. Neilson."
"And if you think our military will save us from the MAGA gravel pits to come, please stop thinking that. Trump may be book-dumb, but he’s street-smart. General Austin will be replaced, probably with Flynn or someone Flynnish. Hell, we can’t even rely on the better angels of the Supreme Court - that human centipede of textualist hypocrisy – which right now is shamelessly dragging at least nine of its 18 feet in a cynical attempt to put the kibosh on Judge Chutkan’s trial. Watch as the creature bends itself - and America - backward, sideways, and upside down to help Trump familiarize a thing that isn’t supposed to be a thing - American autocracy."
"American Democracy: If you've never gotten a death threat, you're not doing it right."
"Listening is ninety percent of effective speaking - and most of the remaining ten percent of the time should be spent thinking with one's mouth closed."
"Soon, when AI has mastered the art of brilliant writing, conversational speech will come to be known as the only form of communication fully trusted as authentically human and the only real proof of one's eloquence, such that those who can assuredly speak will be held in a higher regard than those who can supposedly write."
"Words are like little gods; to forsake their power is to forsake yours."
"Most creative people have this thing called negative capability, which is the ability to not become annoyed by what one does not understand. So if you, for instance, have no regard for Jackson Pollock, but are drawn to things like Bob Ross’s landscapes, or Thomas Kinkade’s cabins, or Hitler’s watercolors, then rest assured, you have zero negative capability – which doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t be creative (the MAGA poet David Lehman comes to mind here), only that you’re making things way more difficult than they need to be."
"If we wish to speak and write like Hemingway, we cannot simply dumb down our language to a third-grade reading level and be done with it. To achieve the coveted "Hemingway effect," we must weather our speech with the timeless expressions found within the literary canon. In other words, minimalism is complicated."
"If you're given to using "like" as a filler word, then by all means, like, have at it. Filler words are rhetorical lubricant."
"Most Americans are bilingual and don’t even know it. Because in addition to their native language, they learn at an early age (as did I) to speak “Cliché.” So instead of “acquaint yourself with,” they’ll insist on the more common expression “get to know.” Instead of “think no more of it,” they’ll dumb that down to the insufferable “fuhget about it.” Multiply those two examples by a thousand, and you’ve got yourself a terribly bad case of UAD: ugly American diction."