All Quotes
2989 quotes in total
“Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis. Chap. 1 : Introduction”
“We can determine the adequacy of a linguistic theory by developing rigorously and precisely the form of grammar corresponding to the set of levels contained within this theory, and then investigating the possibility of constructing simple and revealing grammars of this form for natural languages. Chap. 1 : Introduction”
“Despite the undeniable interest and importance of semantic and statistical studies of language, they appear to have no direct relevance to the problem of determining or characterizing the set of grammatical utterances. I think that we are forced to conclude that grammar is autonomous and independent of meaning, and that probabilistic models give no particular insight into some of the basic problems of syntactic structure. Chap. 2 : The Independence of Grammar”
“There are many facts about language and linguistic behavior that require explanation beyond the fact that such and such a string (which no one may ever have produced) is or is not a sentence. It is reasonable to expect grammars to provide explanations for some of these facts. Chap. 8 : The Explanatory Power of Linguistic Theory”
“The Legitimacy of Violence as a Political Act? Noam Chomsky debates with Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag, et al.”
“A Review of B. F. Skinner 's Verbal Behavior”
“sense of utter irresponsibility”
“responsibility of people,”
“The Responsibility of Intellectuals”
“There can be no society without poetry , but society can never be realized as poetry, it is never poetic. Sometimes the two terms seek to break apart. They cannot. "Signs in Rotation" (1967) in The Bow and the Lyre : The Poem, The Poetic Revelation, Poetry and History (1973) as translated by Ruth L.C. Simms, p. 249”
“Only now have I understood that there was a secret relationship between what I have called my expulsion from the present and the writing of poetry . Poetry is in love with the instant and seeks to relive it in the poem, thus separating it from sequential time and turning it into a fixed present. But at that time I wrote without wondering why I was doing it. I was searching for the gateway to the present: I wanted to belong to my time and to my century. A little later this obsession became a fixed idea: I wanted to be a modern poet. My search for modernity had begun. Nobel Lecture”
“To fight evil is to fight ourselves. Itinerary”
“If you are the amber mare”
“Motion", as translated by Eliot Weinberger, in Collected Poems 1957”
“Between going and staying the day wavers,”
“I am a man: little do I last”
“Brotherhood: Homage to Claudius Ptolemy”
“We are condemned”
“A Tale of Two Gardens”
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act III”
“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Ch. 4”
“I can resist anything except temptation. Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act I”
“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about. Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act I”
“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act III”
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)”
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act I”
“We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language. The Canterville Ghost (1887)”
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Ch. 4”
“Debajo de tu piel vive la luna. The moon lives in the lining of your skin.”