Discourse Quotes - Page 20

• My curiosity, alas, is not the kind that can be satisfied by objective knowledge. Plato said that opinion is worthless and that only knowledge counts, which is a neat formulation. ... But melancholy Danes from the northern mists understand that opinion is all there is. The great questions transcend fact, and discourse is a process of personality. Knowledge cannot respond to knowledge. And wisdom? Is it not opinion refined, opinion killed and resuscitated upward? Maybe Plato would have agreed with this.

  Hayden Carruth

  Plato, Men, Personality

  "Reluctantly: Autobiographical Essays".

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• how can a democratic discourse exist in a corporate owned informational system? Who, for example, possesses freedom of speech in such a society?

  Herbert Schiller

  Freedom Of Speech, Example, Democratic

  "Living In The Number One Country". Book by Herbert Schiller, 2000.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• The force of what was called Panther rhetoric or word mongering resided not in elegant discourse but in strength of affirmation (or denial), in anger of tone and timbre. When the anger led to action there was no turgidity or over-emphasis. Anyone who has witnessed political rows among the Whites will have to admit that the Whites aren't overburdened with poetic imagination.

  Jean Genet

  Imagination, Political, Denial

  Jean Genet (2003). “Prisoner of Love”, New York Review of Books

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The French equate intelligence with rational discourse, the Russians with intense soul-searching. For the Mexican, intelligence is inseparable from maliciousness.

  Carlos Fuentes

  Mexican, Soul, Intelligence

  14 Copy quote

• Prose-it might be speculated-is discourse; poetry ellipsis. Prose is spoken aloud; poetry overheard.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Might, Prose

  Joyce Carol Oates (1989). “(Woman) writer: occasions and opportunities”, Plume

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The most superficial fact regarding the 'Discourses,' the fact that the number of its chapters equals the number of books of Livy's 'History,' compelled us to start a chain of tentative reasoning which brings us suddenly face to face with the only New Testament quotation that ever appears in Machiavelli's two books and with an enormous blasphemy.

  Leo Strauss

  Book, Numbers, Two

  "Thoughts on Machiavelli". Book by Leo Strauss, 1958.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is time to remind Sharon that the star of David belongs to all Jews, not to his repulsive Government. His actions are staining the star of David with blood. The Jewish people, whose gifts to civilised discourse include Einstein and Epstein, Mendelssohn and Mahler, Sergei Eisenstein and Billy Wilder, are now symbolised throughout the world by the blustering bully Ariel Sharon, a war criminal implicated in the murder of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila camps and now involved in killing Palestinians once again.

  Gerald Kaufman

  Stars, War, Government

  Speech to the House of Commons, April 2002.

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• I hold to the idea that civility, understood as the willingness to engage in public discourse, is the first virtue of citizens.

  Mark Kingwell

  Ideas, Citizens, Firsts

  "The World We Want: Virtue, Vice, and the Good Citizen". Book by Mark Kingwell, 2000.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Because our ladies mostly attend Kalatshepams, (Religious discourses) they have fallen prey to the superstitions, blind beliefs, and immorality by the false and fictituous propaganda of the Brahmins.

  Periyar E. V. Ramasamy

  Religious, Blind Belief, Superstitions

  Collected works of Periyar E.V.R., p. 517, 2005.

  82 Copy quote

  Show source

• To move from a discussion of the early relationship between theatre and television to an examination of the current situation of live performance is to confront the irony that whereas television initially sought to replicate and, implicitly, to replace live theatre, live performance itself has developed since that time toward the replication of the discourse of mediatization.

  Philip Auslander

  Moving, Live Theatre, Television

  Philip Auslander (2002). “Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture”, p.23, Routledge

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Atheists have just as much of a right to the public discourse as any ... people of any religious faith in this country.

  Al Gore

  Country, Religious, Atheist

  4 Copy quote

• No Discourse whatsoever, can End in absolute Knowledge of Fact.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Atheism, Facts, Ends

  Thomas Hobbes (1750). “The Moral and Political Works To which is Prefixed the Autors Life, Extracted from that Said to be Written by Himself ... Illustr. by the Ed. - London 1750”, p.122

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• A principle familiar to propagandists is that the doctrine to be instilled in the target audience should not be articulated: that would only expose them to reflection, inquiry, and, very likely, ridicule. The proper procedure is to drill them home by constantly presupposing them, so that they become the very condition for discourse.

  Noam Chomsky

  Home, Reflection, Target Audience

  Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman (2004). “Letters from Lexington: Reflections on Propaganda”, p.41, Pluto Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Jamie Kilstein and Allison Kilkenny have created an important political radio show that balances humor and unreported news. At a time when media conglomerates dominate the airwaves, independent media like Citizen Radio is vital to national discourse.

  Noam Chomsky

  Independent, Media, Political

  4 Copy quote

• When your Islamic discourse with someone becomes a debate, that's when you know that you have to stop. The psychology of a debate is like a sports competition, and no one likes to lose. So even if you make a good point, the other person isn't going to congratulate you. They are thinking about revenge.

  Nouman Ali Khan

  Sports, Revenge, Islamic

  FaceBook post by Nouman Ali Khan from Oct 01, 2014

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• Rhetoric in serious discourses is like the flowers in corn; pleasing to those who come only for amusement, but prejudicial to him who would reap profit from it.

  Jonathan Swift

  Flower, Amusement, Corn

  7 Copy quote

• Allegories, when well chosen, are like so many tracks of light in a discourse, that make everything about them clear and beautiful.

  Joseph Addison

  Beautiful, Light, Track

  Joseph Addison (1856). “The works of ... Joseph Addison, with notes by R. Hurd”, p.428

  33 Copy quote

  Show source

• At least in the West, politicians, corporations and media moguls can no longer take for granted their power to control the public discourse - and have it go unchallenged.

  David Puttnam

  Media, Moguls, Corporations

  "Post-Leveson, the press must become as accountable as the rest of us" by David Puttnam, www.theguardian.com. September 11, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the Phaedrus, Plato argued that the new arrival of writing would revolutionize culture for the worst. He suggested that it would substitute reminiscence for thought and mechanical learning for the true dialect of the living quest for truth by discourse and conversation.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Plato, Writing, Media

  7 Copy quote

• My method is related to an attempt to do something that might be understood by today's world, or that could at least provide understanding. In other words, doing something I understand and that everyone understands. This natural desire for communication is also found in other domains, like reading and discourse, etc. I also hate repeating myself; it gives me no pleasure whatsoever. Once I've understood something, I need to start off on new ground.

  Gerhard Richter

  Art, Hate, Communication

  8 Copy quote

• Profanity is the parlance of the fool. Why curse when there is such a magnificent language with which to discourse?

  Theodore Roosevelt

  War, Fool, Language

  25 Copy quote

• Expose every belief to the light of reason, discourse, facts, scientific observations; question everything, be sceptical because this is the only chance at life you will ever get.

  James Randi

  Light, Facts, Chance

  92 Copy quote

• A new race-neutral language was developed for appealing to old racist sentiments, a language accompanied by a political movement that succeeded in putting the vast majority of backs back in their place. Proponents of racial hierarchy found they could install a new racial caste system without violating the law or the new limits of acceptable political discourse, by demanding 'law and order' rather than 'segregation forever'.

  Michelle Alexander

  Race, Order, Law

  65 Copy quote

• President Obama promised to usher in a new era of civility in our political discourse. We should make sure that, quote, "talk to each other in ways that heal, not in ways that wound," close quote.

  Eric Bolling

  Political, President, Way

  Source: www.foxnews.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• We're just learning that a lot of planets are small planets, and we didn't know that before, fact is, in planetary science, objects such as Pluto and the other dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt are considered planets and called planets in everyday discourse in scientific meetings.

  Alan Stern

  Science, Dwarves, Everyday

  7 Copy quote