Discourse Quotes - Page 11

• In the Lord's discourse on spiritual nourishment, we hear Him says: "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life." (John 6:27). He then continued by talking about the true bread from Heaven the bread of God, and the bread of life. (John 6:32-35). Here He appeals to the soul for its nourishment and our thoughts to the spiritual way so as not to occupy our minds with the body and its needs.

  Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria

  Spiritual, Talking, Bread Of Life

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• It is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obsesses the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations wherewith in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into innumerable and inane controversies and fancies.

  Francis Bacon

  Learning, Mean, Men

  "New Method, Book I (Aphorism 43)". Book by Francis Bacon, 1620.

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• People knew there were two ways of coming at truth. One was science, or what the Greeks called Logos, reason, logic. And that was essential that the discourse of science or logic related directed to the external world. The other was mythos, what the Greeks called myth, which didn't mean a fantasy story, but it was a narrative associated with ritual and ethical practice but it helped us to address problems for which there were no easy answers, like mortality, cruelty, the sorrow that overtakes us all that's part of the human condition. And these two were not in opposition, we needed both.

  Karen Armstrong

  Mean, Practice, Two

  "Big Think Interview With Karen Armstrong". Interview with Austin Allen, bigthink.com. November 16, 2009.

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• The language we share is at the core of our identity as citizens, and our ticket to full participation in American political life. We can speak any language we want at the dinner table, but English is the language of public discourse, or the marketplace and of the voting booth.

  S. I. Hayakawa

  Political, Voting, Identity

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• If nature be regarded as the teacher and we poor human beings as her pupils, the human race presents a very curious picture. We all sit together at a lecture and possess the necessary principles for understanding it, yet we always pay more attention to the chatter of our fellow students than to the lecturer's discourse. Or, if our neighbor copies something down, we sneak it from him, stealing what he himself may have heard imperfectly, and add it to our own errors of spelling and opinion.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Teacher, Errors, Race

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• Political discourse has been reduced to "Where's the beef?" "Read my lips," and "Make my day." Where are the assassins when we really need them?

  George Carlin

  Political, Beef, Needs

  George Carlin (2015). “3 x Carlin: An Orgy of George including Brain Droppings, Napalm and Silly Putty, and When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?”, p.193, Hachette UK

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• Illiberal left ideology has its greatest strength on campuses because campuses are one of the few places in American life where a certain kind of far-left politics can actually impose hegemony on other ideas and really control the discourse in a way it can't in most places in American life where even moderate liberals are more of a minority.

  Jonathan Chait

  Ideas, Hegemony, Minorities

  Source: www.npr.org

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• When I was in the US, I felt that the discourse there surrounding Muslims as the other, problematising Muslims and Islam as the other was very similar to what we find in Australia, which is that the image of Islam is a constructed image in the West. We are starting from a point of view that Islam and Muslims - well Islam is a violent, misogynistic, hateful religion and that is where the debate always starts from - that presumption underlies the discourse.

  Reza Aslan

  Views, Australia, Islam

  Source: www.sbs.com.au

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• In our democracy and our civic discourse, it seems as if folks who take religion the most seriously are sometimes also those who are suspicious of those not like them.

  Barack Obama

  Democracy, Sometimes, Folks

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• The artist must imitate that which is within the thing, that which is active through form and figure, and discourses to us by symbols.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Artist, Form, Figures

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (2015). “The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poetry, Plays, Literary Essays, Lectures, Autobiography and Letters (Classic Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of the English poet, literary critic and philosopher, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Lyrical Ballads, Conversation Poems and Biographia Literaria”, p.2612, e-artnow

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• Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of humility in the humble.

  Blaise Pascal

  Humble, Humility, Pride

  Blaise Pascal (2010). “Thoughts, Letters and Minor Works”, p.127, Cosimo, Inc.

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• It's fine to talk about politics with people you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse becomes more extreme.

  Lawrence Lessig

  People, Rude, Political

  Lawrence Lessig “Free Culture”, Lulu.com

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• The more aggressive our ideologies become, the more aggressive our discourse whether it's in the United States, from Washington D.C., or whether it's from Tehran, or from some underground Al-Qaeda cell. The more aggressive that discourse is, the more people of moderate persuasion have to organize and speak a voice of compassion. That means to feel with the other.

  Karen Armstrong

  Mean, Compassion, Voice

  "Big Think Interview With Karen Armstrong". Interview with Austin Allen, bigthink.com. November 16, 2009.

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• I love the best of all the traditions. My discipline is the take-no-prisoners language of good poetry, but a language that actually frees us from prejudice, no matter what religion or political persuasion they are. I try to create a river-like discourse. The river is not political, it's not on your side or against you. It's an invitation into the onward flow.

  David Whyte

  Your Side, Rivers, Discipline

  "Courageous Conversations: An Interview with David Whyte". Interview with Kim Rosen, spiritualityhealth.com. December 8, 2014.

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• I have been lately introduced to the famous Thomas Paine, and like him very well. He is vain beyond all belief, but he has reason to be vain, and for my part I forgive him. He has done wonders for the cause of liberty, both in America and Europe, and I believe him to be conscientiously an honest man. He converses extremely well; and I find him wittier in discourse than in his writings, where his humour is clumsy enough.

  Wolfe Tone

  Believe, Writing, Men

  Theobald Wolfe Tone (1893). “The Autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone. 1763-1798; Ed. with an Introduction by R. Barry O'Brien”

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• One of the greatest challenges facing civilization in the twenty-first century is for human beings to learn to speak about their deepest personal concerns-about ethics, spiritual experience, and the inevitability of human suffering-in ways that are not flagrantly irrational. We desperately need a public discourse that encourages critical thinking and intellectual honesty. Nothing stands in the way of this project more that the respect we accord religious faith.

  Sam Harris

  Spiritual, Religious, Honesty

  Sam Harris (2006). “Letter to a Christian Nation”, Alfred a Knopf Incorporated

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• With the requests of some he complied, and has published a discourse, delivered before the Society for recovering drowned persons, which may be justly pronounced one of the most beautiful and interesting sermons in the English language.

  John Strachan

  Beautiful, Interesting, May

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• There is no question but that nominally religious scientists like Francis Collins and Kenneth R. Miller are doing lasting harm to our discourse by the accommodations they have made to religious irrationality.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, Scientist, Made

  "The Politics of Ignorance". www.huffingtonpost.com. August 02, 2005.

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• The level of discourse in this country is falling to a depth that cannot be sustained.

  Martin Frost

  Country, Fall, Depth

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• Philosophers make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light because they are so high.

  Francis Bacon

  Stars, Philosophy, Light

  Francis Bacon (1765). “The works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord High Chancellor of England, in five volumes”, p.186

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• It is an impertinent and unreasonable fault in conversation for one man to take up all the discourse.

  Richard Steele

  Men, Faults, Conversation

  Joseph Addison, Richard Steele (1854). “The Spectator”, p.321

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• A father would do well, as his son grows up, and is capable of it, to talk familiarly with him; nay, ask his advice, and consult with him about those things wherein he has any knowledge or understanding. By this, the father will gain two things, both of great moment. The sooner you treat him as a man, the sooner he will begin to be one; and if you admit him into serious discourses sometimes with you, you will insensibly raise his mind above the usual amusements of youth, and those trifling occupations which it is commonly wasted in.

  John Locke

  Growing Up, Father, Son

  "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" by John Locke, (Sec. 95), 1693.

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• The native and untaught suggestions of inquisitive children do often offer things, that may set a considering man's thoughts on work. And I think there is frequently more to be learn'd from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men, who talk in a road, according to the notions they have borrowed, and the prejudices of their education.

  John Locke

  Children, Men, Thinking

  John Locke, George Berkeley (2010). “Locke, Berkely & Hume”, p.113, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I do not say this, that I think there should be no difference of opinions in conversation, nor opposition in men's discourses... 'Tis not the owning one's dissent from another, that I speak against, but the manner of doing it.

  John Locke

  Men, Thinking, Differences

  John Locke, George Berkeley (2010). “Locke, Berkely & Hume”, p.134, Cosimo, Inc.

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• There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Hate, Evil, Suffering

  "Phaedo" by Plato,

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