Prescriptive Versus Descriptive Quotes & Sayings

Science fiction is not prescriptive; it is descriptive. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Women have to be careful to not wear out their husbands on their honeymoons, or they get so weak that they can't go to work! — Victor Villasenor

At the witching hour, the city was totally silent. Only the wind of portent blew through the gathered council of whispering brick chimneys on the rooftops, delivering the hand that would write upon the wall. — Wyatt Michael

But here he was, toeing that line he couldn't stay away from. He — Sarah J. Maas

I don't really believe in vices. I love wine and cheese and chocolate, but they're what make life fun. They're a pleasure and an important part of living. — Donna Air

we may experience an absolute positive change and do the undone if we shift our thoughts from descriptive thinking to prescriptive thinking — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Deleuze and Guattari have been totally misunderstood because the following has been wrenched from context: "Forming grammatically correct sentences is for the normal individual the prerequisite for any submission to social laws. No one is supposed to be ignorant of grammaticality; those who are belong in special institutions. The unity of language is fundamentally political." (112)
They are NOT advocating for this sort of prescriptive approach to language; rather, they are describing the social system around language--how language is a political tool. Why persist in quoting them as though they are promoting some sort of linguistic purity? — Gilles Deleuze

[L]anguage functions best when we mediate between the descriptive and prescriptive influences, changing the rules to better suit some things, but sticking to them for others. — John Wiswell

I knew I liked her then, really liked her, this girl with an explanation for everything. — Gillian Flynn

True art tries not to attract attention in order to be noticed. — Jose Bergamin

To love someone is to love the process of them, not just the way they are but the way they grow. To witness a human's personal evolution is to worship at the altar of their true selfhood. And all you have to do is listen well. Listen to what they say, what they don't say, and the context in which they're saying it. Keep listening. And then listen some more. — Emily Foster

Science will explain how but not why. It talks about what is, not what ought to be. Science is descriptive, not prescriptive; it can tell us about causes but it cannot tell us about purposes. Indeed, science disavows purposes. — Jonathan Sacks

Rodents can come across as being quite vacant in the personality stakes. — Julian Clary

The violence in the Old Testament and New Testament is descriptive. The violence in the Koran is for all time and it is prescriptive. And Mohammed said "I have been made victorious through terror.". — Pamela Geller

What's descriptive isn't necessarily prescriptive. — Alistair Begg

The common workshop goal is revision, not suicide. — Hilma Wolitzer

I want people to know me as a real person, that I struggle with the same things they do, that I had to teach myself how to get through life in efficient ways. — Brit Morin

Teaching someone to be funny is like teaching someone to be fast. They're already fast. You're just making them faster. — Ali Farahnakian