What a glut of books! Who can read them? As already, we shall have a vast chaos and confusion of books; we are oppressed with them, our eyes ache with reading, our fingers with turning.
—Robert Burton, 1621Quotes
Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCNewspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever lays one down without a feeling of disappointment.
—Charles Lamb, 1833Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921Words pay no debts.
—William Shakespeare, 1601Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?
—Alfred Hitchcock, 1962I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.
—Xenocrates, c. 350 BCHistory does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.
—Theodor Adorno, c. 1946In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
—Voltaire, 1764The newspaper is the natural enemy of the book, as the whore is of the decent woman.
—Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, 1858Writing cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.
—The Book of Changes, c. 350 BCWhen action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1969We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.
—John Locke, 1690