Illiterate Quotes - Page 5

• Childhood was terrifying for me. A kid has no control. You’re three feet tall, flat broke, unemployed, and illiterate. Terror snaps you awake. You pay keen attention. People can just pick you up and move you and put you down.

  Mary Karr

  Moving, Kids, Feet

  "Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir No. 1". Interview with Amanda Fortini, www.theparisreview.org. 2009.

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• The present Luddism over genetic engineering may die a natural death as the computer-illiterate generation is superseded.... I fear that, if the green movement's high-amplitude warnings over GMOs turn out to be empty, people will be dangerously disinclined to listen to other and more serious warnings.

  Richard Dawkins

  Engineering, Gmos, People

  Richard Dawkins (2010). “A Devil's Chaplain: Selected Writings”, p.20, Hachette UK

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• The public is totally illiterate in America. It can't read at all. It's absolutely insensitive to words.

  James Purdy

  America, Insensitive

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I didn't write because in the corps I took mining engineering of all things and, you know, they, they graduate a mining engineer as a sort of an illiterate.

  Rube Goldberg

  Writing, Engineering, Uranium Mining

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• Increasingly, our leaders must deal with dangers that threaten the entire world, where an understanding of those dangers and the possible solutions depends on a good grasp of science. The ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, questions of diet and heredity. All require scientific literacy. Can Americans choose the proper leaders and support the proper programs if they themselves are scientifically illiterate? The whole premise of democracy is that it is safe to leave important questions to the court of public opinion - but is it safe to leave them to the court of public ignorance?

  Isaac Asimov

  Rain, Ignorance, Science

  "Combatting U.S. Scientific Illiteracy" by Isaac Asimov, articles.latimes.com. March 31, 1989.

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• He who has read Kafka's Metamorphosis and can look into his mirror unflinching may technically be able to read print, but is illiterate in the only sense that matters.

  George Steiner

  Mirrors, Looks, May

  George Steiner (2010). “Language and Silence”, p.15, Faber & Faber

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• Part of what makes a situation traumatic is not talking about it. Talking reduces trauma symptoms. When we don't talk about trauma, we remain emotionally illiterate. Our most powerful feelings go unnamed and unspoken.

  Tian Dayton

  Powerful, Talking, Silence

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• We are underbred and low-lived and illiterate; and in this respect I confess I do not make any very broad distinction between theilliterateness of my townsman who cannot read at all and the illiterateness of him who has learned to read only what is for children and feeble intellects. We should be as good as the worthies of antiquity, but partly by first knowing how good they were.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Children, Knowing, Literature

  Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.169

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• When we begin to understand the concept of Karma we will never ever blame God for anything that happens to us. We will realise that we are responsible for all that happens to us. As we sow, so shall we reap. Rich or poor, saint or sinner, miser or philanthropist, learned or illiterate ... This is the Universal Law that applies to individuals, to whole communities, societies, nations and races. As we sow, so shall we reap.

  Dada Vaswani

  Karma, Rich Or Poor, Race

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• The Ragamuffin rabble are the unsung assembly of saved sinners who are little in their own sight, conscious of their brokenness and powerlessness before God, and who cast themselves on His mercy. Startled by the extravagant love of God, they do not require success, fame, wealth, or power to validate their worth.  Their spirit transcends all distinctions between the powerful and powerless, educated and illiterate, billionaires and bag ladies, high-tech geeks and low-tech nerds, males and females, the circus and the sanctuary.

  Brennan Manning

  Powerful, Sight, Nerd

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• I would like to apologize for referring to George W. Bush as a 'deserter.' What I meant to say is that George W. Bush is a deserter, an election thief, a drunk driver, a WMD liar, and a functional illiterate. And he poops his pants.

  Michael Moore

  Liars, Wmd, Drunk

  Statement in 2004. "'Capitalism is evil … you have to eliminate it'" by Chris McGreal, www.theguardian.com. January 30, 2010.

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• It's a great lesson in modesty that you realize you're illiterate in a field that you think you're an expert in.

  Wim Wenders

  Thinking, Experts, Lessons

  "Director Wim Wenders PINA Interview". Roundtable interview, collider.com. December 21, 2011.

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• The writing has been on the wall for some years now, but we are a nation illiterate in the language of the wall. The writing just gets bigger. Something will eventually bring down the charming, infuriating naïveté of Americans that allows us our blithe consumption and cheerful ignorance of the secret ugliness that bring us whatever we want.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Wall, Ignorance, Writing

  Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “Small Wonder”, p.317, Faber & Faber

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• I've discovered that most critics themselves are cinematically illiterate. They don't really know much about movies. They don't know the history. They don't know the technology. They don't know anything. So for them to try to analyze it, they're lost.

  George Lucas

  Technology, Trying, Lost

  "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

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• A dog doesn't care if you are rich or poor, educated of illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his. It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not.

  John Grogan

  Dog, Clever, Heart

  John Grogan (2008). “Marley & Me tie-in: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog”, William Morrow Paperbacks

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• The Romans had been able to post their laws on boards in public places, confidant that enough literate people existed to read them; far into the Middle Ages, even kings remained illiterate.

  John Roberts

  Kings, Law, People

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• I'm literate, and the idea of leaving children illiterate is criminal.

  Octavia Butler

  Children, Ideas, Leaving

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Parable of the Talents”, p.442, Open Road Media

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• I don't say things like "the grace of God." All that's white noise to me, not because I'm an intellectual. For many people, it's gibberish. Likewise, the idea that the Koran was dictated by an archaic illiterate is a fantasy.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Ideas, White, People

  Source: www.wanliss.com

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• When I became thoroughly acquainted with the Greek and Roman authors, I thought it incumbent upon me to do something towards the honor of the place of my nativity, and to vindicate the rhetoric of this ancient forum of our Metropolis from the aspersions of the illiterate by composing A Treatise of the Alercation of the Ancients; wherein I have demonstrated that the purity, sincerity, and simplicity of their diction is nowhere so well preserved as amongst my neighbourhood.

  John Arbuthnot

  Simplicity, Greek, Honor

  George Atherton Aitken, John Arbuthnot (1892). “The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, M.D.: Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians”

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• We're much better at dealing with dyslexia today than in 50th, but reading difficulties are still a problem in the U.K. I believe there's currently something like eleven thousand functionally illiterate adults in the U.K.

  Maggie O'Farrell

  Reading, Believe, Today

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• A remarkable feature of Islam is that it gives dignity even to the humblest illiterate peasants. It gives them a certain human dignity which one doesn't find in other societies.

  Bernard Lewis

  Giving, Islam, Dignity

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• A political system seeking to function amongst ignorant, illiterate and barbaric people could have marvelous principles but could only succeed in being ignorant, illiterate and barbaric unless one addressed the people one by one and cured the ignorance, illiteracy and barbarism of each citizen.

  L. Ron Hubbard

  Ignorance, People, Political

  "Politics". Scientology Policy Letter, February 13, 1965.

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• The more gifted by nature is a man, the more is deplorable the abuse that he does by using them to shameful ends. A swindler (or crook) of higher condition is more blameworthy than a vulgar scoundrel; an intelligent eveil-doer, having benefited from a higher education, represent a more saddening phenomenon ("phénomène", Fr.) than an unfortune illiterate fellow having commited an offence.

  African Spir

  Men, Intelligent, Abuse

  "Paroles d'un sage: Choix de pensées d'African Spir" ("Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir") by Hélène Claparède-Spir, (p. 48), 1937.

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• I am to consider the many advantages arising from a frequent use of oaths, curses, and imprecations. In the first place, this genteel accomplishment is a wonderful help to discourse; as it supplies the want of good sense, learning, and eloquence. The illiterate and stupid, by the help of oaths, become orators; and he, whose wretched intellects would not permit him to utter a coherent sentence, by this easy practice, excites the laughter, and fixes the attention, of a brilliant and joyous circle.

  Mary Collyer

  Laughter, Stupid, Practice

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• No, I consider myself computer illiterate.

  Casper Van Dien

  Computer

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