Category Archives: Quotes

As every second post on this site is a quote. You’ll find a deep and broad variety of quotes under this category, which overlap with several other tags and categories. Many of the quotes are larded with links for deeper reading on the subject of the quote, or connections between the subject of the quotes and other people, things, or ideas. See the Taxonomies page for more about this category.

William Carlos Williams

“William Carlos Williams: (1883-1963) U.S. poet. Trained as a pediatrician, Williams spent a lifetime writing poetry and practicing medicine in his hometown of Rutherford, New Jersey. He is noted for making the ordinary appear extraordinary through clear and discrete imagery and powerful evocation of the world of common objects, as in the fresh impressions of the sensuous world expressed in ‘The Red Wheelbarrow,’ from Spring and All (1923). Paterson (1946-58), a five-part long poem, evokes a complex vision of modern American life. His other poetry includes Pictures from Brueghel (1962; Pulitzer Prize). His numerous prose works include essays, a trilogy of novels, short stories, drama, and autobiography.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

Rotten Reviews: Cat Man

[This rotten review refers to the novel Cat Man by Edward Hoagland]

“This lengthy description of the lower depths of existence among men who pick up a living around travelling circuses is frequently disgusting in an eager, repetitious, small-boy way.

The New Yorker 

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.   

Word Origins: Bimbo

“bimbo: [E20th] Bimbos in English are young women, but in Italian a bimbo is a baby, and in English bimbo was originally an American slang term for a fellow or chap, especially a foolish one. In 1947 P.G. Wodehouse wrote of ‘Bimbos who went about the place making passes at innocent girls after discarding their wives.’ This meaning is first recorded in 1918, and by the 1920s the modern sense was being used. In the 1980s the word himbo was coined to mean ‘a male bimbo.’ At the same time bimbette was coined for a younger bimbo. Compare BABE.’

Excerpted from: Creswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Voltaire on History

“History is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead.”

Voltaire

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

Editorial

“Editorial (noun): A newspaper of magazine column that voices the opinions of the editors or publisher, usually about an issue of current importance or interest; fervid or long-winded harangue. Adjective: editorial; adverb: editorially

‘He knew he could probably write smarter editorials if he read The Brothers Karamazov and some of the other great works of all time, but there was the trouble: if he sat around reading the great works of all time, how would he ever get his editorials written?’ Richard Yates, A Good School”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

The Doubter’s Companion: Citizen

“Citizen: The individual is essentially a citizen.

This is reality inherited from Athens. We have little choice but to accept it since democracy cannot function in any other way. It is possible to hop along in a one-legged manner with citizens voting from time to time but refusing to participate and being denied most of their obligations. The result is a superficial, even dishonest, system and a population constantly dissatisfied with itself.

If the individual is not first a citizen, then the obligations and privileges which go with that status are effectively lost and the person ceases, to all intents and purposes, to be an individual.”

Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.

 

Acrylic Resin Paint

“Acrylic Resin Paint: An oil-compatible synthetic medium which is thinned with linseed oil and turpentine.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

Term of Art: Retrieval

“retrieval: The searching and finding process that leads to recognition and recall, bringing information out of long-term memory.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

Aestheticism

“Aestheticism: Generally, a term applied to a way of perceiving things that was common among the writers and artists of the 19th century who adhered to the doctrine of art for art’s sake. The movement, or cult, was largely influenced by German romantics, particularly Goethe. Because of the quest for beauty and the insistence that art should serve no moral or didactic purpose, it was related with the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Parnassians. Major exponents of aestheticism in America were Edgar Allan Poe and Ralph Waldo Emerson.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

Book of Answers: Miss Havisham’s House

What is the name of Miss Havisham’s house in Dickens’s Great Expectations? Satis House

Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.