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.

Historical Term: African National Congress

“ANC. African National Congress, party formed in 1912 at Bloemfontein to protect the interests of black people in South Africa. It developed from the Native Education Association formed in 1882 in Cape Colony. In 1926 it decided to work for a democratic and racially integrated South Africa. It pursued non-violent tactics and many young Africans left it because of its lack of militancy. The South African government made it illegal in 1961. In the same year the ANC’s leader, Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), was tried for treason and acquitted. He was however, subsequently convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment. Despite Mandela’s continuing detention, he remained the most potent symbol of the anti-apartheid movement and the ANC is still widely recognized—even by many white South Africans—as the most formidable champion of black rights.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

Historical Term: Bourgeoisie

bourgeoisie: (Fr. citizen class) Term used by Marxists to indicate those persons other than the agricultural capitalist who do not, like the proletariat, live by the sale of their labor. They include, on the one hand, industrialists, financiers and members of the liberal professions; on the other, small artisans and shopkeepers who are described as the ‘petty” bourgeoisie, although their standard of living may not be appreciably higher, and may even be lower, than that of the proletariat. According to Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie arose with modern industrialization, breaking feudal patterns of society and replacing the feudal lords of the ruling class; the petty bourgeoisie will gradually become proletarianized and the proletariat will then succeed its remaining members as masters of society.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

Fourth Dimension

“Fourth Dimension: A non-Euclidean geometrical concept that first became popular in France around 1910 and that may have influenced the Cubists. Picasso and Braque as well as Marcel Duchamp painted objects from multiple perspectives, suggesting a synthesis of views taken at various points in time. Contemporary artists such as Tony Robbin are once again dealing with issues of the fourth dimension by using computers and concepts based in physics and mathematics.”

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

Collis P. Huntington on his Possessions

“Whatever is not nailed down is mine. Whatever I can pry loose is not nailed down.”

Collis P. Huntington

Attributed in Robert W. Kent, Money Talks (1985)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Book of Answers: Beowulf

“How many monsters does Beowulf kill? Three—Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a dragon. The Old English poem Beowulf is thought to date from the eighth century.”

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

7 Vowels

Alpha * Epsilon * Eta * Iota * Omicron * Upsilon * Omega

The vowels have always been linked to the seven heavens, most famously in Hebrew, where the seven unwritten vowels created the sound for God—Jehovah. The link between the language of man and the presumed languages of the seven Heavenly spheres has always been speculated upon. However, it is one of the more arcane secrets of the mystics which of the seven planets is linked to which vowel.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

Term of Art: Modal Auxiliaries

“Modal Auxiliaries: Any of the verbs that combine with the main verb to express necessity (must), obligation (should), permission (may), probability (might), possibility (could), ability (can), or tentativeness (would). Mary might wash the car.”

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

Term of Art: Parallelism

“Parallelism: In rhetoric, a device in which a formula or structural pattern is repeated, as in the Latin sequence veni, vidi, vici and its English translation I came, I saw, I conquered. It occurs in sayings and proverbs (such as Now you see them, now you don’t and Out of sight, out of mind) and in verse and poetic prose (‘My mother groaned, my father wept—/ Into the dangerous world I leapt’ (William Blake, Songs of Experience)).”

Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Glory

“Glory: A general term for the representation of an emanation of light around a sacred personage. Aureole, halo, nimbus, and mandorla are types of glories.”

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

The Devil’s Dictionary: Demagogue

Demagogue, n. A political opponent.” 

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