Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.
Anthony BurgessRead
Only in England is the perversion of language regarded as a victory for democracy.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes how the manipulation of language is seen as a positive aspect of democracy in England.
Anthony Burgess's quote reflects a cynical view on the relationship between language and democracy in England, suggesting that the distortion or perversion of language is celebrated or seen as a triumph of democratic values. This perspective raises questions about the implications of altered communication and its impact on society, highlighting the potential risks of misinterpretation and manipulation in the political discourse.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the impact of political rhetoric on public perception.
Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.
There is a satisfactory boniness about grammar which the flesh of sheer vocabulary requires before it can become a vertebrate and walk the earth.
There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening.
Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy.
You needn't take it any further, sir. You've proved to me that all this ultraviolence and killing is wrong, wrong, and terribly wrong. I've learned me lesson, sir. I've seen now what I've never seen before. I'm cured! Praise Bog! I'm cured!
It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good. And when I say that to you I realize how self-contradictory that sounds. I know I shall have many sleepless nights about this. What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions, little 6655321.
Whenever I happen to be in a city of any size, I marvel that riots do not break out everyday: Massacres, unspeakable carnage, a doomsday chaos. How can so many human beings coexist in a space so confined without hating each other to death?
The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
Where is the Life we lost in living?
Man is not an omipotent master of the universe, allowed to do with impunity whatever he thinks, or whatever suits him at the moment. The world we live in is made of an immensely complex and mysterious tissue about which we know very little and which we must treat with utmost humility.
Cynicism means the conduit to the soul has a great kink in it, like a garden hose in which nothing flows in either direction.
We are so presumptuous that we should like to be known all over the world, even by people who will only come when we are no more. Such is our vanity that the good opinion of half a dozen of the people around us gives us pleasure and satisfaction.
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