The Painted Word Quotes

“Groucho Marx said, “I find television very educational. Every time someone turns on a set I go into the other room and read a book.”
― Phil Cousineau, The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins

“Voltaire playfully wrote, “Ice-cream is exquisite—what a pity it isn’t illegal.”
― Phil Cousineau, The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins

“Barbara Tuchman wrote, “Reasonable orders are easy enough to obey; it is capricious, bureaucratic or plain idiotic demands that form the habit of discipline.”
― Phil Cousineau, The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins

“word that drifted into English from Holland, where English itself was born around the 11th century, according to Melvyn Bragg. From the Dutch a-loef, luff, to steer into the wind to avoid danger and away from the shore. Figuratively, aloof proved to be a strong metaphor for the desire of many sailors and landlubbers alike to steer away from people; it drifted out to sea in its current meaning, as the American Heritage Dictionary defines it: “being without a community of feeling, distant, indifferent.”
― Phil Cousineau, The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins

“derives from the 14th-century word Old French aleurer, to attract, captivate, and more exotically, to train a falcon to hunt. The roots are à, to, and loirre, falconer’s lure.”
― Phil Cousineau, The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins

“On the flip side is Woody Allen’s nebbish observation: “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.” Companion words include mischief and bonchief, a bad result and a good result, respectively,”
― Phil Cousineau, The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins

“For instance, if we gaze deeply at the deceptively simple word opportunity, we have a chance to see hidden beauty shining from below, which is the Roman god Portunus, patron of harbors. Seen in this light every new circumstance is like sailing into a strange and distant port, which may offer a haven, if we choose to take refuge.”
― Phil Cousineau, The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins

“the startling line in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, where Captain Hook is described: “The man isn’t wholly evil; he has a thesaurus in his cabin.”
― Phil Cousineau, The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins

“ABSQUATULATE To flee, abscond, or boogie. This facetious frontier slang combines the notion of speculating with squatting or camping. An example of America’s “barbaric brilliancy”
― Phil Cousineau, The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins