Stanley Fish Quotes

• This is what language does: organize the world into manageable, and in some sense artificial, units that can then be inhabited and manipulated.

  Stanley Fish

  Doe, World, Language

  Stanley Fish (2011). “How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One”, p.7, Harper Collins

  46 Copy quote

• Language is not a handmaiden to perception; it is perception; it gives shape to what would otherwise be inert and dead.

  Stanley Fish

  Giving, Perception, Shapes

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• The purpose of a good education is to show you that there are three sides to a two-sided story.

  Stanley Fish

  Education, Two Sides, Three

  13 Copy quote

• Belief and knowledge are considered to be two different things. But they are not.

  Stanley Fish

  Two, Different, Belief

  10 Copy quote

• The idea - the core idea of humanism - is that the act of reading about great deeds will lead you to imitate them.

  Stanley Fish

  Reading, Ideas, Deeds

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

  8 Copy quote

• The first thing to ask when writing a sentence is 'What am I trying to do?'

  Stanley Fish

  Writing, Trying, Firsts

  9 Copy quote

• It is of no help to us that there is an absolute truth of the matter of things because unfortunately, none of us are in a position to say definitively what that is - although we all think that we are.

  Stanley Fish

  Thinking, Matter, Helping

  10 Copy quote

• Sentences can save us. Who could ask for anything more?

  Stanley Fish

  Sentences, Asks

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

  8 Copy quote

• What we know of the world comes to us through words, or, to look at it from the other direction, when we write a sentence, we create a world, which is not the world, but the world as is appears within a dimension of assessment.

  Stanley Fish

  Writing, Assessment, Looks

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

  8 Copy quote

• It may sound paradoxical, but verbal fluency is the product of many hours spent writing about nothing, just as musical fluency is the product of hours spent repeating scales.

  Stanley Fish

  Writing, Musical, Sound

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

• Freedom of speech is not an academic value. Accuracy of speech is an academic value; completeness of speech is an academic value; relevance of speech is an academic value. Each of these is directly related to the goal of academic inquiry: getting a matter of fact right.

  Stanley Fish

  Goal, Freedom Of Speech, Academic

  Source: www.salon.com

  7 Copy quote

• Any idea can be brought into the classroom if the point is to inquire into its structure, history, influence and so forth. But no idea belongs in the classroom if the point of introducing it is to recruit your students for the political agenda it may be thought to imply.

  Stanley Fish

  Ideas, Political, Agendas

  Stanley Fish (2015). “Think Again: Contrarian Reflections on Life, Culture, Politics, Religion, Law, and Education”, p.360, Princeton University Press

  7 Copy quote

• It is always incorrect to assume you can know what someone's moral convictions are based on their philosophical theories.

  Stanley Fish

  Philosophical, Moral, Assuming

  8 Copy quote

• People write or speak sentences in order to produce an effect, and the success of a sentence is measured by the degree to which the desired effect has been achieved.

  Stanley Fish

  Writing, Order, People

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

• Sentence writers are not copyists; they are selectors.

  Stanley Fish

  Sentences

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Chapter 4, What Is A Good Sentence?, p. 38. Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

• I should have known better. Pro-life arguments are now based on scientific evidence and the pro-choice arguments are not. That is a cultural, historical fact.

  Stanley Fish

  Should Have, Choices, Pro Life

  7 Copy quote

• Despite the apparent absoluteness of the First Amendment, there are any number of ways of getting around it, ways that are known to any student of law. In general, the strategy is to manipulate the distinction between speech and action which is at bottom a distinction between inconsequential and consequential behavior.

  Stanley Fish

  Law, Numbers, Speech

  6 Copy quote

• The category of first sentence makes sense only if it is looking forward to the development of thematic concerns it perhaps only dimly foreshadows.

  Stanley Fish

  Development, Firsts, Looking Forward

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• No word floats without an anchoring connection within an overall structure.

  Stanley Fish

  Connections, Structure, Floats

  Stanley Fish (2011). “How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One”, p.17, Harper Collins

  4 Copy quote

• Know what makes a sentence more than a random list, practice constructing sentences and explaining what you have done, and you will know how to make sentences forever and you will know too when what you are writing doesn't make the grade because it has degenerated into a mere pile of discrete items.

  Stanley Fish

  Writing, Practice, Forever

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

• Opinion-sharing sessions are like junk food: they fill you up with starch and leave you feeling both sated and hungry. A sustained inquiry into the truth of a matter is an almost athletic experience; it may exhaust you, but it also improves you.

  Stanley Fish

  Athletic, Feelings, Junk

  Stanley Fish (2012). “Save the World on Your Own Time”, p.35, Oxford University Press

  6 Copy quote

• I do not support abortion rights. Although what I would support in this vexed area is not clear to me.

  Stanley Fish

  Rights, Support, Abortion

  Stanley Eugene Fish (1999). “The Trouble with Principle”, p.285, Harvard University Press

  7 Copy quote

• Just as you can practice three-word sentences or sentences that travel across time zones, so can you practice writing sentences that breathe unshakable conviction.

  Stanley Fish

  Writing, Practice, Time Zones

  "How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One". Book by Stanley Fish, 2011.

  11 Copy quote

• In general, higher education does not know how to speak for its interests. It offers a stance that is defensive, cowardly and likely to be ineffective.

  Stanley Fish

  Doe, Speak, Higher Education

  8 Copy quote

• We in universities are not in the democracy business. What we do, when we're doing it, is teach and learn.

  Stanley Fish

  Democracy, Teach, University

  7 Copy quote

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