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.

Write It Right: As for So

Posted on September 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

“As—as for So—as. ‘He is not as good as she.’ Say, not so good. In affirmative statements the rule is different: He is as good as she.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference

Tagged

Fascist Aesthetic

Posted on September 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Fascist Aesthetic: Associated primarily with Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco, this was art with propagandistic intentions clearly outlined in realist styles, giving it a close resemblance to socialist realism. In Germany, images of youthful blonds reflected myths of Aryan superiority, while the heavy, grandiose architecture at Munich and Nuremberg proclaimed an imperial destiny inherited from antiquity. It strongly contrasts with modern art, dubbed degenerate (entartete) by Hitler.”

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged , ,

Rotten Rejections: Madame Bovary

Posted on September 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

“You have buried your novel underneath a heap of details which are well done but utterly superfluous….”

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

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference

Tagged , ,

Flying Buttress

Posted on September 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Flying Buttress: A bridge of masonry that transmits the thrust of a vault or roof to an outer support. Characteristic of Gothic architecture.”

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

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference

Tagged

The Devil’s Dictionary: Dictator

Posted on September 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Dictator, n. The chief of a nation that prefers the pestilence of despotism to the plague of anarchy.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged ,

Term of Art: Participle

Posted on September 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Participle: A verbal A that functions as an adjective. Present participles end in -ing (brimming); past participles typically end in -d or -ed (injured) or -en (broken) but may appear in other forms (brought, been, gone).”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference

Tagged , ,

Environment Art

Posted on September 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Environment Art: Not to be confused with earth art, in its broadest sense earth art refers to the work of artists who manipulate the man-made environment. Controlled spaces, whether sculpted or constructed of building materials or light beams or sound—are intended to be experienced with all the senses. A major theme has been the fusion of architecture and sculpture in a room space that surrounds the entering viewer, such as the life-size, three-dimensional tableaux created by Edward Kienholz. Environment art has appeared sporadically in several 20th-century movements, including Dada, surrealism, and pop art.”

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

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged ,

Ben Bagdikian on American Journalism

Posted on September 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach’s St. Matthew Passion on a ukulele: the instrument is too crude for the work, for the audience and for the performer.”

Ben Bagdikian

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged , , , ,

Write It Right: As for That, or If

Posted on September 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

“As for That, or If. ‘I do not know as he is living.’ This error is not very common among those who can write at all, but sometimes one sees it in high place.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference

Tagged

Mark Twain on Social Choices

Posted on September 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail.”

Mark Twain in a Speech (1900)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged , ,