Propp Quotes & Sayings

The progressive Left can be in favor of Big Government or population control but not both. The mutual incompatibility is about to plunge Europe into societal collapse. There is no precedent in human history for economic growth on declining human capital - and that's before anyone invented unsustainable welfare systems. — Mark Steyn

For anyone who wants to understand the art of storytelling, this film [The Hunt for Red October] should suffice; one wonders why universities persist in teaching narrative principles on the basis of Propp, Greimas or other such punishing curricula, instead of investing in a projection room. Premise, plot, protagonists, adventures, quest, heroes and other stimulants: all you need is Sean Connery in the uniform of a Russian submarine officer and a few well-placed aircraft carriers. — Muriel Barbery

Lessons of wisdom have the most power over us when they capture the heart through the groundwork of a story, which engages the passions. — Laurence Sterne

Born on an island, I could swim before I could walk, thrown many times into swimming pools and warm transparent Caribbean waters: sink or swim, that was my first lesson. While I'm not a natural athlete, I'm still a strong swimmer and feel a great affinity with the sea. — Monique Roffey

When I received the invitation to "check out" Fairport I knew absolutely nothing about them, all I knew was that they were beginning to establish themselves as an underground favorite, by playing regularly at the UFO club in Covent Garden. But the crowd I was running with at the time were listening to a completely different genre of music. So I had nothing to go on, there was nothing on vinyl, Fairport's recording days were still ahead of them. — Iain Matthews

Speak your truth quietly & clearly; and listen to others, even the dull & ignorant; they too have their story. — Max Ehrmann

He said cruelty was the devil's own trade-mark, and if we saw any one who took pleasure in cruelty we might know who he belonged to, for the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and a tormentor to the end. On the other hand, where we saw people who loved their neighbors, and were kind to man and beast, we might know that was God's mark. — Anna Sewell

There is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. — Learned Hand

Precisely in the most desperate moments, when having the masculine role feels most unfair, when we're our most tired, running on fumes, and need to keep providing in all these aspects, this is when the provision of God tastes the sweetest. — David Mathis

MacPherson told me that my theorem can be viewed as blah blah blah Grothendieck blah blah blah, which makes it much more respectable. — Jim Propp

I think some intuition leaks out in every step of an induction proof. — Jim Propp

What promotes math progress even more than new ideas are new technical tools and habits of thought that encapsulate existing ideas, so that insights of one generation become the instincts of the next. — Jim Propp

I listen a lot to the incredible young artists who are coming through, which is something that just wasn't possible during Apartheid. That's the way I learn. — Letta Mbulu

How many writers still dare compare a woman to Nature, like Campion? - there is a garden in her face - how lovely ... — John Geddes

Pain can easily produce the sense of being abandoned. The presence of someone who loves and cares can most persuasively counter that fear. God's words were important to Job, but most important to him was the assurance that God was with him through it all, revealing Himself to Job at the most critical moment. And Job said, "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you" (Job 42:5). — Ravi Zacharias

It's what people know about themselves inside that makes them afraid. — Clint Eastwood

The inward offer is a kind of spiritual enlightenment, whereby the promises are presented to the hearts of men, as it were, by an inward word. — William Ames

I got by on talent. That was my fatal mistake. — Pete Maravich