External Speech

Famous quotes containing the words external and/or speech:

    Many are poets but without the name,
    For what is poesy but to create
    From overfeeling good or ill; and aim
    At an external life beyond our fate,
    And be the new Prometheus of new men.
    George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)

    Grammar is a tricky, inconsistent thing. Being the backbone of speech and writing, it should, we think, be eminently logical, make perfect sense, like the human skeleton. But, of course, the skeleton is arbitrary, too. Why twelve pairs of ribs rather than eleven or thirteen? Why thirty-two teeth? It has something to do with evolution and functionalism—but only sometimes, not always. So there are aspects of grammar that make good, logical sense, and others that do not.
    John Simon (b. 1925)