Living Standard

Famous quotes containing the words living and/or standard:

    “Now, again, poetry
    violent, arcane, common,
    hewn of the commonest living substance
    into archway, portal, frame
    I grasp for you, your bloodstained splinters, your
    ancient and stubborn poise
    Mas the earth trembles—
    burning out from the grain”
    —Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

    “This unlettered man’s speaking and writing are standard English. Some words and phrases deemed vulgarisms and Americanisms before, he has made standard American; such as “It will pay.” It suggests that the one great rule of composition—and if I were a professor of rhetoric I should insist on this—is, to speak the truth. This first, this second, this third; pebbles in your mouth or not. This demands earnestness and manhood chiefly.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)