Saying
Related: citation - proverb - quotation - speech - language
Sois belle et tais-toi -- French sexist saying. "What can be said at all can be said clearly; and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence." ["Was sich überhaupt sagen läßt, läßt sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber muß man schweigen."] --Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico Philosophicus (1921) [Amazon.com]
Definition
Something, such as an adage or maxim, that is said.--American Heritage Dictionary [Jun 2004]
Synonyms: saying, maxim, adage, saw, 2motto, epigram, proverb, aphorism
These nouns refer to concise verbal expressions setting forth wisdom or a truth. A saying is an often repeated and familiar expression: a collection of philosophical sayings.Maxim denotes particularly an expression of a general truth or a rule of conduct: “For a wise man, he seemed to me... to be governed too much by general maxims” (Edmund Burke).
Adage applies to a saying that has gained credit through long use: a gift that gave no credence to the adage, “Good things come in small packages.” Saw often refers to a familiar saying that has become trite through frequent repetition: old saws that gave little comfort to the losing team. A
motto expresses the aims, character, or guiding principles of a person, group, or institution: “Exuberance over taste” is my motto. An epigram is a witty expression, often paradoxical or satirical and neatly or brilliantly phrased: In his epigram Samuel Johnson called remarriage a “triumph of hope over experience.”
Proverb refers to an old and popular saying that illustrates something such as a basic truth or a practical precept: “Slow and steady wins the race” is a proverb to live by.
Aphorism, denoting a concise expression of a truth or principle, implies depth of content and stylistic distinction: Few writers have coined more aphorisms than Benjamin Franklin.
Quote
"I see the studio must be like a living thing, a life itself. The machine must be live and intelligent. Then I put my mind into the machine and the machine perform reality. Invisible thought waves - you put them into the machine by sending them through the controls and the knobs or you jack it into the jack panel. The jack panel is the brain itself, so you got to patch up the brain and make the brain a living man, that the brain can take what you sending into it and live." --Lee Perry
Quote mining
Quote mining is the practice of compiling quotes from large volumes of literature or spoken word. The term is used derogatorily to accuse the "quote miner" of cherry picking and misquotation, where favorable positions are amplified or falsely suggested, and unfavorable positions in the same text are excluded or otherwise obscured.
In recent times, the term has been repeatedly used by proponents of the theory of Evolution to denounce alleged quote mining by proponents of Creationism. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotemining [Jun 2004]
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