These accents are worn with such pride, such misplaced pride, in their differences and their ticks and they whimsical peculiarities that they have become foreign to one another. ibid.
An ancient technology, one that’s at least 5,000 years old: the technology of writing. Lydia Wilson, The Secret History of Writing 1: From Pictures to Words, BBC 2020
Egypt: The halls of Teti’s tomb with thousands of stylised pictures, but this was not decoration. These pictures are hieroglyphs, a writing system older than the pyramids themselves. ibid.
The creation of writing is the event which gave humanity a history. ibid.
So what I was holding in my hand [Sumerian clay tablet] was the distant ancestor of today’s spreadsheet. ibid.
Like hieroglyphs, Chinese characters are stylised pictures … ‘There are so many similarities.’ ibid. academic in both
In the year of our Lord 1448 in Mainz, Germany, a goldsmith by the name of Johannes Gutenberg was experimenting with a lead alloy and a hand-held mould. His aim was to speed up the process of putting ink on paper but what he did was to speed up history. Gutenberg’s invention spelled the end of the Middle Ages and ushered in the modern world of science and industry. Lydia Wilson, The Secret History of Writing II: Words on a Page
The fall of the Roman Empire is one of the great inflection points of history and it coincides with a change in the technology of Europe. As papyrus disappeared so did the book as a relatively inexpensive everyday commodity. ibid.
The fact that parchment could be folded made it possible to stitch leaves together into a codex, the modern form of the book. ibid.
Brush calligraphy produced works of art that were prized in China every bit as much as illuminated manuscripts were in Europe. But in a medieval manuscript the art is in the decoration around the text. The nature of the Latin alphabet and the characteristics of parchment produced letters that were regular and repetitive. But in Chinese brush-calligraphy the art is in the brushwork that produces the characters themselves. And that is made possible by the nature of the writing surface. Paper was invented in China in 2nd century A.D. ibid.
Paper was key to another Chinese invention: woodblock printing. Each handwritten page of text was glued to a wooden block and then the characters were carved out by a skilled craftsman. This step was laborious and expensive. ibid.
The Islamic Golden Age: the arts and sciences flourished … We still count using an Arabic numbering system. ibid.
The secret of Gutenberg’s printing press was his ability to mass-produce copies of each individual letter. And in this he had a hidden advantage: ‘the letters of the alphabet are really simple shapes … These simple block-like letters can become blocks of metal and can become printed.’ ibid. expert
For 5,000 years the technology of writing has allowed people to communicate across space and time and make civilisation itself possible. From common roots, writing developed into a myriad of distinct scripts. But today a new digital communication technology is becoming universal across the globe. Lydia Wilson, The Secret History of Writing III: Changing the Script
A movement that swept across the world in the twentieth century: a series of script reforms that threatened to replace the multitude of traditional writing systems with a single universal script: the Latin alphabet. ibid.
With a change in script comes a fundamental change in identity … Latinization was at heart a political project. ibid.
You can get a long farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. Al Capone, attributed
It was my care to make my life illustrious not by words more than by deeds. Sophocles
Don’t listen to their words, fix your attention on their deeds. Albert Einstein
Love is shown in your deeds not in your words. Father Jerome Cummings
I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions. Vaclav Havel, speech October 1989
How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? Mark, and afterwards we will speak. Job 18:2
Who is this that darkened counsel by words without knowledge? Job 38:2
The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Psalms 12:6
Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it. Psalms 119:140
Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever. Psalms 119:160
A word spoken in due season, how good it is! Proverbs 15:23
Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. Proverbs 16:24
A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.
A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.
The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. Proverbs 18:6-8
Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of him. Proverbs 29:20
Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Proverbs 30:5&6
God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. Ecclesiastes 5:2&3
Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee. Ecclesiastes 7:21
If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.
A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him? Ecclesiastes 10:10-14
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Matthew 12:36&37
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Matthew 24:35
Their words seemed to them as idle tales. Luke 24:11
Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee. Luke 19:22
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. John 1:1&14
Let no man deceive you with vain words. Ephesians 5:6
Hold fast the form of sound words. II Timothy 1:13
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22