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.

G.K. Chesterton on Social Class

Posted on October 31, 2025 | Leave a comment

“The classes that wash most are those that work least.”

G.K. Chesterton

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

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Demagoguery, Demagogy, Demagogism

Posted on October 31, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Demagoguery, Demagogy, Demagogism (noun): The practices or language of a leader who, avid for power, appeals to popular emotions and prejudices and makes false claims and promises; impassioned duplicitous cant; opportunistic rhetoric. Adjective: demagogic, demagogical; adverb: demagogically; noun: demagogue, demagog.

‘Since obsessions dragoon our energy by endless repetitive contemplations of guild we can neither measure nor  forget, political power of the most frightening sort was obviously waiting for the first demagogue who would smash the obsession and free the white man of his guilt. Norman Mailer, Miami and the Siege of Chicago.'”

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

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Praxis

Posted on October 31, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Praxis: The Greek word meaning ‘doing’ is widely used for all purposeful human activity. In his later, Marxist-influenced work, Sartre, for instance, defines praxis as political action in the world, or as the practical transformation of the world in accordance with a desired end or formality (1960). Praxis is a specifically human activity; the dam-building of a beaver is not praxis because it is an instinctual and unchanging response to a natural environment, and because it implies neither the mastery of existing technology nor the development of new technical means. Beavers will always build dams in the same manner; human engineers will develop new ways of doing so. Although praxis is determined by a finality of goal, its outcome is not always predictable, and it may be reversed into a counter-finality that frustrates the original intention. The outcome or material development of praxis is referred to as the ‘practico-inert’; the relationship between the two is not dissimilar to that between the in-itself and the for-itself.

In his Prison Notebooks, Gramsci (1971) uses the term “philosophy of praxis” as a synonym for Marxism.

Excerpted from: Macey, David. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. New York: Penguin, 2001.

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Quadratura

Posted on October 24, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Quadratura: Illusionistic painting on a ceiling or wall in which perspective and foreshortening of architectural members, figure, etc., give the impression that the interior is open and limitless. Practiced by Italian baroque specialty painters, known as quadraturisti or quadratisti.”

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

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Word Origins: Accolade

Posted on October 24, 2025 | Leave a comment

“accolade: [E17th] The Provencal word acolada is the source of accolade. This literally meant an embrace or a clasping around the neck, and described the gesture of a friendly hug that was sometimes made when knighting someone, as an early alternative to a stroke on the shoulder with the flat of a sword. The ultimate root of the Provencal word is Latin collum ‘neck,’ from which we also get collar [ME].”

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

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Architect

Posted on October 24, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Architect, n. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money.”

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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Emerson on the End of the Human Race

Posted on October 16, 2025 | Leave a comment

“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

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

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Term of Art: Self-Regulation

Posted on October 16, 2025 | Leave a comment

“self-regulation: The ability to regulate and monitor a person’s own actions and behavior. Problems with effective self-regulation are a primary struggle for students with attention and executive function problems.

Effective self-regulation depends on a complex interaction of thinking, feeling, and perception.

Problems with self-regulation may stem from many different sources. Individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder typically have problems with self-regulation due to underlying brain processing difficulties with memory, attention, and executive function, particularly as these affect the ability to control impulses and restrain and monitor internal thoughts. Problems with self-regulation also may be caused by other psychological conditions, such as bipolar disorder, conduct disorders, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Development of more effective ways to self-regulate is part of an effective coaching and strategy development program for individuals with ADHD. In general, while self-regulation may be seen as an underlying brain function, it is also learned behavior. Therefore, it is possible to teach individuals how to change patterns of impulsive and reckless behavior.”

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

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Deadwood

Posted on October 16, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Deadwood (noun): Useless or expendable words that add nothing to clarity or meaning; verbiage; redundancy. See also VERBALISM.

‘Overly specific’ is inferior to “over specific,” as “inside of her” is to “inside her”; deadwood is always undesirable. John Simon. Paradigms Lost'”

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

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Jorge Amado

Posted on October 10, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Jorge Amado: (1912-2001) Brazilian novelist. Born and reared on a cacao plantation, he published his first novel at 20. His early works, including The Violent Land (1942), explore the exploitation of suffering of plantation workers. Despite imprisonment and exile for leftist activities, he continued to produce novels, many of which have been banned in Brazil and Portugal. Later works such as Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (1958), Dona Flor and her Two Husbands (1966), and The War of the Saints (1993) preserve Amado’s political attitude in their more subtle satire.”

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

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