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.

The Devil’s Dictionary: Monarch

Posted on March 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Monarch, n. A person engaged in reigning. Formerly the monarch ruled, as the derivation of the word attests, and as many subjects have had occasion to learn. In Russia and the Orient the monarch has still a considerable influence in public affairs and in the disposition of the human head, but in western Europe political administration is mostly entrusted to his ministers, he being somewhat preoccupied with reflections relating to the status of his own head.”

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

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Can Wisdom Be Taught?

Posted on March 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Teachers…are particularly beset by the temptation to tell what they know…. Yet no amount of information, whether of theory or fact, in itself improves insight and judgment or increases ability to act wisely.”

 Charles I. Gragg

Because Wisdom Can’t Be Told

 Excerpted from: Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1998.

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The American Mercury

Posted on March 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

“The American Mercury: An iconoclastic magazine founded in 1924 and edited by H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan. Among its contributors were Lewis Mumford, Sinclair Lewis, Carl Sandburg, and Vachel Lindsay. After Mencken’s retirement in 1933, it was published as a pocket-sized miscellany of conservative tendencies by Lawrence E. Spivak. It eventually became a rightist organ of limited circulation owned by millionaire J. Russell Maguire.”

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

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Term of Art: Cognitive Theory

Posted on March 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Cognitive Theory: A major cluster of theories in social psychology, which focus upon the links between mental processes (such as perception, memory, attitudes, or decision making), and social behavior. At a general level such theories are opposed to behaviorism, and suggest that human beings are active in selecting stimuli, constructing meanings, and making sense of their worlds. There are many branches of cognitive theory, including Fritz Heider’s cognitive balance theory, Leon Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory, George Kelly’s personal construct theory, and attribution theory. (See J.R. Eiser, Cognitive Social Psychology, 1980).”

Excerpted from: Marshall, Gordon, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

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Serial Art (Serial Imagery)

Posted on March 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Serial Art (Serial Imagery): The repetition, with slight variations, of an image in the same work of art, whether a single canvas or related modules of a sculptured work; named in the late 1960s. Andy Warhol and Donald Judd have both worked in the serial image mode. It displays some traits of systemic painting, although it is a distinct movement.”

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

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George Eliot on the Fundamental Humanity of Teaching

Posted on March 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.”

George Eliot (1819-1880)

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

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Metaphor

Posted on March 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Metaphor (noun): The figure of speech denoting implied comparison: an imaginative of analogous term used in place of a given word or concept, or an expressive and comparable figurative term; word or image that is suggestively equivalent and ornamental but not synonymous; application of comparable, figurative word or words. Adj, metaphoric; metaphorical; adv. metaphorically.

‘The Speaker of the House is not a goddamned metaphor; I have never been a metaphor and, God willing, I never will be.’ –Thomas P. (“Tip”) O’Neill, quoted in The New Republic”

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

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Workshop

Posted on March 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Workshop: Refers to those artworks produced primarily by assistants from drawings or cartoons by a major artist, usually under his or her supervision. Rubens, for example, would complete the final work, after leaving most of the preliminary details to his workshop. The degree of his intervention was reflected in the cost of the work.”

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

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Term of Art: Exegesis

Posted on March 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Exegesis: In Roman times the exegetes were professional and official interpreters of charms, omens, dreams, sacred law and oracular pronouncements. Thus the term has come to mean an explanation or interpretation and is often applied to biblical studies. As far as literature is concerned, it covers critical analysis and the elucidation of difficulties in the text. A variorum edition (q.v.), for example, contains a great deal of exegesis.”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.

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Write It Right: All Of

Posted on March 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

“All of. ‘He gave me all of his property.’ The words are contradictory: an entire thing cannot be of itself. Omit the preposition.”

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

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