“The English language is shot through with idioms and expressions which allude to violence without inciting it, most of which pass without notice unless they're called to your attention. One of the most disingenuous moves in the incivility wars is to treat these expressions with a specious literalism; politics makes Freudians of us all. (205)”
-
Working on it...
-
Working on it...
-
Working on it...
-
Working on it...
Similar quotes
“Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.”
“The English language on her tongue became a smoke-screen, without her eyes changing expression in the least.”
“They invent a howling theatrical language through which it becomes possible to express the grief of the whole world, a language understood by no one but the two of them.”
“For it has come about, by the wise economy of nature, that our modern spirit can almost dispense with language; the commonest expressions do, since no expressions do; hence the most ordinary conversation is often the most poetic, and the most poetic is precisely that which cannot be written down.”
“Men make war to get attention. All killing is an expression of self-hate.”