Brent Woo

“The brain is a trashcan, though perhaps the best of all possible trashcans.”
― Andrea Moro, The Boundaries of Babel: The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages

“Thus the struggle between rule and spirit repeats itself year after year from school to school. The authorities go to infinite pains to nip the few profound or more valuable intellects in the bud. And time and again the ones who are detested by their teachers are frequently punished, the runaways and those expelled, are the ones who afterwards add to society's treasure. But some - and who knows how many? - waste away quiet obstinacy and finally go under.”
― Hermann Hesse, Beneath the Wheel

“Biology, list history, is not built with 'if's.”
― Andrea Moro, The Boundaries of Babel: The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages

“Language's only known predator is other people: many languages have been stamped out or imposed on others through war or conquest.”
― Gretchen McCulloch, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language