#speech

I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. ↗

— J.K. Rowling

#life

With false names, on the right nets, they could be anybody. Old men, middle-aged women, anybody, as long as they were careful about the way they wrote. All that anyone would see were the words, their ideas. Every citizen started equal, on the nets. ↗

— Orson Scott Card

#anonymous #free-speech #identity #internet #trolling

Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. A day of wolves, of shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight! For all you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West! ↗

— j r r tolkein

#film #inspirational #lord-of-the-rings #lotr #movie

There is great worth in holding universal truths and timelessly beautiful words in your heart, which will stay there forever, infusing your thoughts and speech… ↗

— Dan Stevens

#inspirational #quotes #speech #thoughts #truths

Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#speech #thoreau #walden #communication

Right words are born in courage, which results from our struggle to make sense of our various predicaments. Cheer is what words are "trying to tell us/... It's native to the words/and what they want us always to know/even when it seems quite impossible to do. ↗

— William Meredith

#poetry #speech #communication

Why is contemporary China short of works that speak directly? Because we writers cannot speak directly, or rather we can only speak in an indirect way. Why does contemporary China lack good works that critique our current situation? Because our current situation may not be critiqued. We have not only lost the right to criticise, but the courage to do so. Why is modern China lacking in great writers? Because all the great writers are castrated while still in the nursery. ↗

— Murong Xuecun

#literature #courage

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. ↗

— Ingrid Bergman

#become #designed #kiss #lovely #nature

We’re not dreamers. We’re awaking from a dream turning into a nightmare. We’re not destroying anything. We’re watching the system destroy itself. ↗

— Slavoj Žižek

#dreams

All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let's get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States -- and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death! ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#education #free-speech #paraphrased #death