- Apr 2024
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We quote because we are afraid to-change words, lest there be a change in meaning.
Quotations are easier to collect than writing things out in one's own words, not only because it requires no work, but we may be afraid of changing the original meaning by changing the original words or by collapsing the context and divorcing the words from their original environment.
Perhaps some may be afraid that the words sound "right" and they have a sense of understanding of them, but they don't quite have a full grasp of the situation. Of course this may be remedied by the reader or listener not only by putting heard stories into their own words and providing additional concrete illustrative examples of the concepts. These exercises are meant to ensure that one has properly heard/read and understood a concept. Psychologists call this paraphrasing or repetition the "echo effect" (others might say parroting or mirroring) and have found that it can help to build understanding, connection, and likeability between people. Great leaders who do this will be sure to make sure that credit for the original ideas goes to the originator and not to themselves simply because they repeated it, especially in group settings where their words may have more primacy amidst their underlings.
(I can't find it at the moment, but there's a name/tag for this in my notes? looping?)
Beyond this, can one place the idea into a more clear language than the original? Add some poetry perhaps? Make the concept into a concrete meme to make it more memorable?
Journalists like to quote because it gives primacy of voice to the speaker and provides the reader with the sense that they're getting the original from which they might make up their own minds. It also provides a veneer of vérité to their reportage.
Link this back to Terrence's comedy: https://hypothes.is/a/xe15ZKPGEe6NJkeL77Ji4Q
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- Dec 2023
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relegate "quot homines, tot sen-tentie" back to the Latin comedy fromwhich.it emerged.
origin of the phrase? see: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quot_homines_tot_sententi%C3%A6
apparently from Latin, echoing line 454 of Terence’s Phormio
Or the fuller quotation: - quot homines tot sententiae: suo’ quoique mos - as many men, so many minds: to every one his own way - There are as many opinions as there are people who hold them: each has his own correct way
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We have all heard and probably beenirritated or bored by the assertion thatno two people think alike «quat homines)tot sentential' that science is alwayscontradicting itself, that theologians andeconomists can never agree. It is largelymental laziness on the defensive thatmakes people say this kind of thing.
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