Speechlessness Quotes & Sayings

The member of a culture ... purposely avoids the relationship of intimacy; he wants the object somehow depicted and fictionalized ... He is embarrassed when this is taken out of its context of proper sentiments and presented bare, for he feels that this is a reintrusion of that world which his whole conscious effort has sought to banish. Forms and conventions are the ladder of ascent. And hence the speechlessness of the man of culture when he beholds the barbarian tearing aside some veil which is half adornment, half concealment. — Richard M. Weaver

She is convinced that when language dies, out of carelessness, disuse, indifference and absence of esteem, or killed by fiat, not only she herself, but all users and makers are accountable for its demise. In her country children have bitten their tongues off and use bullets instead to iterate the voice of speechlessness, of disabled and disabling language, of language adults have abandoned altogether as a device for grappling with meaning, providing guidance, or expressing love. — Toni Morrison

The war is dreadful. It is the business of the artist to follow it home to the heart of the individual fighters - not to talk in armies and nations and numbers - but to track it home. — D.H. Lawrence

Music is a bird's answer to the noise and heaviness of words. It puts the mind in a state of exhilerated speechlessness. — Yann Martel

The traits of our sexual culture are still speechlessness, loneliness, violence and not enough desire and love. — Volkmar Sigusch

In the last fifteen minutes, she'd knocked him flat on his back, reduced him to speechlessness, and for the first time in his life, made him wonder if lightning strikes from fate weren't metaphysical bullshit. — Angel Payne

Speechlessness, however, affirmed in the diagnosis, is carefully based on the facts of the examination, as we see by rendering the statements concerned, just as they stand in examination and diagnosis: If thou examinest a man having a wound in the temple, ... ; if thou ask of him concerning his malady and he speak not to thee; ... ; thou shouldst say concerning him, 'One having a wound in his temple, ... (and) he is speechless'. — James Henry Breasted

I had understood that our knowledge is primarily a practised ritual that serves to conceal our speechlessness in the face of the real. I had learned that the more clearly we construct our sentences, the less we understand about what actually has happened or is still happening. — Rita Kuczynski

No one thought her the least bit unattractive, but at the same time, no one was dazzled by her beauty, stunned into speechlessness by her presence, or moved to write poetry in her honor.
Men, she thought with disgust, were interested only in women who terrified them ... They all adored her, or so they said, because she was so easy to talk to, and she always seemed to understand how a man felt. As one of the men Daphne had thought might make a reasonably good husband had said, 'Deuce take it, Daff, you're just not like regular females. You're positively normal. — Julia Quinn

We raise girls to see each other as competitors - not for jobs or accomplishments, which in my opinion can be a good thing - but for the attention of men. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The world is what you think it is — Serge King

I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room. — Raymond Chandler

So I marshalled the words and opened my mouth, thinking I would hear them. But all I heard was a kind of rattle, unintelligible even to me who knew what was intended. But it was nothing, mere speechlessness due to long silence, as in the wood that darkens the mouth of hell, do you remember, I only just. — Samuel Beckett

Getting out on stage and playing music for people feels great when people are cheering for you, that's obviously really exciting. But what's most exciting is the idea that we're all experiencing something that's bigger than us. — Dan Mangan

Anna despises two classes of people: first, those who own their own homes and have cars and families, and second, everybody else. Constantly she is on the verge of exploding. With rage. A pool of pure red. The pool is filled with speechlessness that talks away at her nonstop. — Elfriede Jelinek

If your opponent wants to fight, the fight will be very interesting not just for the audience, but for myself. — Vitali Klitschko

But it was not long before I found myself alone, in the dark. That is why I gave up trying to play and took to myself for ever shapelessness and speechlessness, incurious wondering, darkness, long stumbling with outstretched arms, hiding. Such is the earnestness from which, for nearly a century now, I have never been able to depart. From now on it will be different. I shall never do any thing any more from now on but play. No, I must not begin with an exaggeration. But I shall play a great part of the time, from now on, the greater part, if I can. But perhaps I shall not succeed any better than hitherto. Perhaps as hitherto I shall find myself abandoned, in the dark, without anything to play with. Then I shall play with myself. To have been able to conceive such a plan is encouraging. — Samuel Beckett

The first thing you do at the end is reflect on the beginning. Maybe it's some form of reverse closure, or just the basic human impulse toward sentimentality, or masochism, but as you stand there shell-shocked in the charred ruins of your life, your mind will invariably go back to the time when it all started. And even if you didn't fall in love in the eighties, in your mind it will fee like the eighties, all innocent and airbrushed, with bright colors and shoulder pads and Pat Benatar or The Cure on the soundtrack. — Jonathan Tropper

The Times is speechless, and takes three columns to express its speechlessness. — Winston Churchill

Louis [Leakey] was anxious to initiate a scientific study of these chimpanzees. It would be difficult, he emphasized, for nothing was known; there were no guidelines for such a field study; and the habitat was remote and rugged. Dangerous wild animals would be living there, and chimpanzees themselves were considered at least four times stronger than humans. I remember wondering what kind of scientist he would find for such a herculean task. — Jane Goodall

I do know that there isn't ever going to be a time when there aren't any knitters. — Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

He was struck dumb at the words though he should not be surprised; his wife kept him in a perpetual state of speechlessness. — Sarah MacLean

But we're not sleeping," he points out.
"well, I would be," I say, "if you would let me off the phone." Which is obviously a lie.
"Fine," he says.
"Fine," I say.
"Wait!"
"What now?!"
"Court?"
I don't say anything.
"Are you there?"
"Yes, I'm here," I say, "What is it?"
"I love you." And then he hangs up the phone. — Lauren Barnholdt

An open mind is like to an open wound. Vulnerable to poison. Liable to fester. Apt to give its owner only pain. — Joe Abercrombie

It is still my dream to own a little flower shop. — Kirsty Gallacher

When had his heart ever felt this full? There were no words. That was the problem. He loved her with speechlessness. — Sondra Kraak

All writing is a sin against speechlessness,' Beckett had said. He would have stopped, I thought, if he could. — Tim Parks

I believe that the silence of God, the absolute speechlessness of Him is a long, long and awful thing that the whole world is lost because of. — Tennessee Williams

It's not bragging if you can back it up. — Muhammad Ali