S. I. Hayakawa Quotes

“Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, I have failed three times, and what happens when he says, I am a failure.”

“Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, I have failed three times, and what happens when he says, I am a failure.”

“He's always been something like a star to me”

“Few people...have had much training in listening. The training of most oververbalized professional intellectuals is in the opposite direction. Living in a competitive culture, most of us are most of the time chiefly concerned with getting our own views across, and we tend to find other people's speeches a tedious interruption of the flow of our own ideas.”

“In the age of television image becomes more important than substance.”

“We should keep the Panama Canal. After all we stole it fair and square.”

“Definitions, contrary to popular opinion, tell us nothing about things. They only describe people's linguistic habits; that is, they tell us what noises people make under what conditions.”

“It is not true that 'we have only one life to live'; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.”

“And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.-Revelations 20:9”

“A beautiful woman belongs to everyone but an ugly one is yours alone” -Gunny Chang, Gunship”

“Piece of cake really – Enforcers, crazy psychopath dude with giant laser rail guns, throw in a few bounty hunters, a couple torture experts – sounds great, I really can’t wait can you?” Duv Jackson, Gunship”