James

“If we think of politics as an industry, we might delight in its new "labour-saving efficiency", but if we think of politics as democratic deliberation, to leave people out is to miss the whole point of the exercise.”
― Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

“Nothing prayed for – it is life’s strictest and least graceful rule – comes to you at the time of praying.”
― Stephen Fry, Moab Is My Washpot

“Lies, fictions and untrue suppositions can create new human truths which build technology, art, language, everything that is distinctly of Man. The word "stone" for instance is not a stone, it is an oral pattern of vocal, dental and labial sounds or a scriptive arrangement of ink on a white surface, but man pretends that it is actually the thing it refers to. Every time he wishes to tell another man about a stone he can use the word instead of the thing itself. The word bodies forth the object in the mind of the listener and both speaker and listener are able to imagine a stone without seeing one. All the qualities of stone can be metaphorically and metonymically expressed. "I was stoned, stony broke, stone blind, stone cold sober, stonily silent," oh, whatever occurs. More than that, a man can look at a stone and call it a weapon, a paperweight, a doorstep, a jewel, an idol. He can give it function, he can possess it.”
― Stephen Fry, The Liar

“Busy people tend to forgo the one activity - TV watching _ that is most lethal to community involvement”
― Robert D. Putnam , Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community