A Quote by Edmund Wilson

They [the English] have a special word, "civil," for what is elsewhere merely ordinary politeness.

Edmund Wilson

Quote Topics

Civil Elsewhere English Merely Ordinary Politeness Special Word

Quote Author

Edmund Wilson
American - Critic
May 8, 1895 - June 12, 1972

When I was quite young I fondly imagined that all foreign languages were codes for English. I thought that "hat," say, was the real and actual name of the thing, but that people in other countries, who obstinately persisted in speaking the code of their forefathers, might use the word "ibu," say, to designate not merely the concept hat, but the English word "hat." I knew only one foreign word, "oui," and since it had three letters as did the word for which it was a code, it seemed, touchingly enough, to confirm my theory.

Annie Dillard

Be ordinary, but bring a quality of awareness to your ordinary life. Bring God to your ordinary life introduce God into your ordinary life. Sleep, eat, love, pray, meditate, but don’t think that you are making or doing something special—and then you will be special.

Rajneesh

It (Arsenal) is an English club but not an English success. It's probably a greater reflection of youngsters from France and elsewhere in Europe.

Alan Pardew

An artist is not special. An artist is an ordinary person who can take ordinary things and make them special.

Ruth Asawa

That's when civil liberty suffers - when we think special times justify the diminution of civil liberties. And I'm not going to accept that.

Alan Dershowitz

Some people, they're seeking elsewhere, looking elsewhere. I love WWE, but this is the type of wrestling that I grew up on. And every week, it's bigger and bigger. And these shows are just getting more and more special.

Cody Rhodes

Do not try to be special. If you are simply ordinary, more ordinary than others, you will become extraordinary.

Jaggi Vasudev

Something that is very special today might not be special tomorrow, but to hold it, to grasp it, to keep it, to make it special, to elevate it from the ordinary, that's when you open up the champagne. To make it sparkle.

Christoph Waltz

We know from our recent history that English did not come to replace U.S. Indian languages merely because English sounded musical to Indians' ears. Instead, the replacement entailed English-speaking immigrants' killing most Indians by war, murder, and introduced diseases, and the surviving Indians' being pressured into adopting English, the new majority language.

Jared Diamond

I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a Freedom and Culture merely civil, - to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society.

Henry David Thoreau

You know what, the jacket’s like the car.” "“Is this a riddle?” " , "“No,” Peabody said as Eve swiped the master.","“It’s an", "ordinary thing—well, special, but a jacket, right? And the car, it’s ordinary, it even looks it. But both of them have the special inside. Cop special especially, you know? He so gets you. That’s even better than a just-because present.”", "“You’re right. He does. And it is.” Inside, Eve paused another moment. “He’s worried about me.”", [J.D. Robb, Celebrity In Death]