Joseph Devlin famous quotes

All the words in the English language are divided into nine great classes. These classes are called the Parts of Speech. They are Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction and Interjection.
-- Joseph Devlin

#Class #Adjectives #Verbs

Shakespeare was not a scholar in the sense we regard the term to-day, yet no man ever lived or probably ever will live that equalled or will equal him in the expression of thought. He simply read the book of nature and interpreted it from the standpoint of his own magnificent genius.
-- Joseph Devlin

#Book #Men #Expression

To use a big word or a foreign word when a small one and a familiar one will answer the same purpose, is a sign of ignorance. Great scholars and writers and polite speakers use simple words.
-- Joseph Devlin

#Ignorance #Simple #Purpose

There is an old Latin quotation in regard to the poet which says 'Poeta nascitur non fit' the translation of which is- the poet is born, not made.
-- Joseph Devlin

#Latin #Fit #Poet

A child can learn what is right as easy as what is wrong and whatever impressions are made on the mind when it is plastic will remain there.
-- Joseph Devlin

#Children #Mind #Easy

As the Internet breaks down the last justifications for a professional class of politicians, it also builds up the tools for replacing them.

I think people are rapidly losing confidence in the political class, and I don't blame them.

Frankly I've never really subscribed to these adjectives tagging me as an 'icon', 'superstar', etc. I've always thought of myself as an actor doing his job to the best of his ability.

What is an adjective? Nouns name the world. Verbs activate the names. Adjectives come from somewhere else. The word adjective (epitheton in Greek) is itself an adjective meaning 'placed on top', 'added', 'appended', 'foreign'. Adjectives seem fairly innocent additions, but look again. These small imported mechanisms are in charge of attaching everything in the world to its place in particularity. They are the latches of being.

A mathematician is a magician who converts adjectives into nouns: continuous into continuum, infinite into infinity, infinitesimal into location, 0D into point, 1D into line, curved into geodesic...

I am still studying verbs and the mystery of how they connect nouns. I am more suspicious of adjectives than at any other time in all my born days.

I think 'ambitious' is one of those adjectives used for women in a derogatory way.

Cliches and adjectives permeated my prose.

A poet is a verb that blossoms light in gardens of dawn, or sometimes midnight.

Every sentence he manages to utter scatters its component parts like pond water from a verb chasing its own tail.