Tuesday, April 28, 2009

How to say nothing in as many words as possible (sayings of Andre Joffe)

a selection from a list compiled by Kevin, many, many years ago.

I always say, where there is smoke there is a cigarette.

I always say, Where there is no smoke there is no fire.

My grandfather always said, something is only worth saying if it has value in being said.

Every bird belongs to a group of birds with the same type of feather.

Never let truth or logic get in the way of saying something.

Never eat raw egg it's disgusting.

8 comments:

  1. I often think of his phrase 'nothing is lost that can ever be found'.

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  2. Walt Whitman says it a bit more elaborately in his poem 'Continuities':

    Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,
    No birth, identity, form--no object of the world.
    Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing;
    Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.
    Ample are time and space--ample the fields of Nature.
    The body, sluggish, aged, cold--the embers left from earlier fires,
    The light in the eye grown dim, shall duly flame again;
    The sun now low in the west rises for mornings and for noons continual;
    To frozen clods ever the spring's invisible law returns,
    With grass and flowers and summer fruits and corn.

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  3. I also like 'nothing is lost that can never be found'. There's something quite deep there.

    a few more favourites:

    never say never unless you are prepared to say it again

    the reason behind every action is a reason worth knowing

    tidying up is the art of putting things in the right place. (yeah right!)

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  4. I find the Walt Whitman poem very emotive, Mags. Thank you. x

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  5. Thanks Jude x

    Remember "Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no-one is watching"?

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  6. I found the line "The sun now low in the west rises for mornings and for noons continual" in Walt Whitman's poem particularly moving. It reminded me of that dawn on the tenth of May, coming out of the hospital and standing on the high walkway, watching the low sun slowly rise, struggling to understand what had just happened.

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  7. Not sure about the word order of the saying above. I think it should be "Work like you don't need the money, dance like no-one is watching and love like you've never been hurt."

    I'm typing this to the sound of screeching foxes outside, very feral. Must be the full moon.

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  8. I know it as:
    Work like you don't need the money
    Love like you've never been hurt
    Dance like no-one's watching

    But it works in any order I think.

    Foxes howling at the full moon - how excitingly macabre!

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