Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[Uncle Robin]

The idea that the descriptivist approach of linguists, describing how language functions rather than trying to prescribe how it "should" function, means a rejection of all standards is a straw man that is addressed in most books on linguistics. Seldom have I seen a more entertainingly concise exposure of the absurdity of this fallacy than in In the Land of Invented Languages

To all the language curmudgeons out there who insist that people ought to speak more logically, I say, be careful what you wish for. You go on about the “logical” mismatch between “everyone” and “their” in perfectly normal-sounding sentences like “Everyone clapped their hands.” You argue that phrases like “very unique” and “sufficiently enough” don't make logical sense. You harp on “hopefully” and “literally” and “the reason is because,” all the while calling logic to your side to defend your righteous anger.

Before you judge me as some kind of “anything goes” language heathen, let me just say that I'm not against usage standards. I don't violate them when I want to sound like an educated person, for the same reason I don't wear a bikini to a funeral when I want to look like a respectful person. There are social conventions for the way we do lots of things, and it is to everyone's benefit to be familiar with them. But logic ain't got nothin' to do with it.

[covingtoncat73]

“Vale!” The creature’s echoing voice boomed down the street. “Prepare to face your doom!” “Ah,” Vale said cheerfully, “it’s for me.”
― Genevieve Cogman, The Invisible Library

[covingtoncat73]

"Don't cry, it distracts the dog."
"I can't help it," she replied."
Then cry," he sighed. "But explain the historical context."
from D (A Tale of Two Worlds): A Novel by Michael Faber.

[poohbear_nc]

"An entire wall of books curves to inspect us. All those characters, plots and locations look toward each other and then me."

From Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan

[j.p.s]

"Pretty amazing if you think about it, how easily humans were on board with removing living parts because they seemed to be annoying and not that useful."

From Immune by Philipp Dettmer

[Luffy]

Life is like a box of chocolates. It doesn't last long if you're fat.

-Joe Lycett

[Loosheesh]

There is something eminently unsatisfactory about a blackmailer. No arrangement with him has any permanent validity. No undertaking that he gives is binding. The thing which he has sold remains in his possession to sell over again. He pockets the price of emancipation, but retains the key of the fetters. In short, the blackmailer is a totally impossible person.

- R Austin Freeman, The Singing Bone

[astrangerhere]

“I suppose the test of one's decency is how much of a fight one can put up after one has stopped caring, and after one has found that one can never please the people they wanted to please.”

Willa Cather in The Selected Letters of Willa Cather after the death of her brother and "the love of her life" within the span of a few months.

[Loosheesh]

“I have never got any good out of a book unless the book interested me in the first instance. When I find that reading becomes an effort instead of a pleasure, I shut up the volume, respecting the eminent author, and admiring my enviable fellow creatures who have succeeded where I have failed.”

- Wilkie Collins, Books Necessary for a Liberal Education

[Uncle Robin]

I'm just starting The Collected Works of Robert Louis Stevenson and this passage from the first piece, Cockermouth, resonated. If only everyone refrained from seeking to establish personal preferences as principles.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

- Wilkie Collins, Books Necessary for a Liberal Education

Then he makes reading recommendations I will look into:

http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/...sNecessary.htm

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I'm just starting The Collected Works of Robert Louis Stevenson and this passage from the first piece, Cockermouth, resonated. If only everyone refrained from seeking to establish personal preferences as principles.

I’m not a huge fan of Stevenson’s novels, perhaps if I’d been an adolescent boy it would be different, but I love the prose style of his essays and travel writing.

[astrangerhere]

Science has taught me that everything is more complicated than we first assume, and that being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life. It has also convinced me that carefully writing everything down is the only real defense we have against forgetting something important that once was and is no more, including the spruce tree that should have outlived me but did not.

Dr. Hope Jahren in Lab Girl

[gmw]

She thought, I bet he doesn’t say things like that to the other boys. That’s the part of himself he only shows to me. That’s the important bit.

Which only goes to show that you can be both right and completely wrong, all at the same time.

“No one wants true stories. They want stories with truth dusted over them, like sugar on a bun.”

-- Ursula Vernon, aka T. Kingfisher, The Raven and The Reindeer (2016)

[gmw]

‘What I mean is you probably haven’t experienced much of what Mr Friedman describes. I look at you, and having read the book, I wonder what made you respond to it.’

‘My, Mr Fikry, that’s a very personal question.’ She sips at the last of her second Queequeg. ‘The main reason I loved the book was the quality of the writing, of course.’

‘Of course. But that isn’t enough.’

-- Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2014)