The Pursuit
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The Pursuit
To care about the etymologies of words is to care about the origins of the world’s story about itself. To broaden and deepen the meanings of words, to celebrate — as David Whyte did — “their beautiful hidden and beckoning uncertainty,” is to broaden and deepen life itself. It is of words that we build the two great pylons propping up our sense of r... See more
Maria Popova • The Dictionary Story: A Love Letter to Language Tucked Into a Delightful Fable About the Difficult Question of How to Be Yourself
Language, writes Karen Armstrong, a religion scholar and former nun, “is not only a vital means of communication, but it helps us to articulate and clarify the incoherent turbulence of our inner world.”14 Even the most ineffable experiences are quickly translated into words by the mind. Moment by moment, we speak ourselves into being. And then, tur
... See moreNicholas Carr • Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart
reality is something that cannot be captured by words or concepts. To know reality you have to know beyond knowing.
J. Francis Stroud • Awareness: Conversations with the Masters
The same is true of words other than ideographs. The English words “man,” “fish,” “star,” “flower,” “run,” “grow,” all denote classes of objects or events which may be recognized as members of their class by very simple attributes, abstracted from the total complexity of the things themselves. Abstraction is thus almost a necessity for communicatio
... See moreAlan W. Watts • The Way of Zen
because they fulfill the most ancient, urgent function of words: to form for us “mental representations of things not actually present,” so that we can form a judgment of what world we live in and where we might be going in it, what we can celebrate, what we must fear.
Ursula K. Le Guin • Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books
Words shape our ideas, how we see the world, and how we relate to one another. As design teacher and researcher Anne Galloway says:
Language makes it possible for us to navigate places and relationships; to express needs and requirements; t... See more
“Language doesn’t just make things—it assembles, cobbles together, entire worlds and all the relations within.”
Language makes it possible for us to navigate places and relationships; to express needs and requirements; t... See more