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VIRTUE
VISION --- VOCABULARY
VOLUNTEERING --- VOTING --- VULGARITY

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VIRTUE

see "CHARACTER" for related links

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A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more
surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force
of the common enemy.... While the people are virtuous they
cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will
be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external
or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge are diffused
among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be
their great security.
--Samuel Adams (1722—1803)
American revolutionary leader.
Letter to James Warren [12 February 1779].


Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws
will secure the liberty and happiness of a people
whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore
is the friend of the liberty of his country who tries
most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his
power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to
be chosen onto any office of power and trust who is
not a wise and virtuous man.
--Samuel Adams (1722—1803)
American revolutionary leader.
Essay published in The Advertiser [1748] and later reprinted
in _The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams_, Volume 1,
by William Vincent Wells; Little, Brown, and Company; Boston [1865].


He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life
is, or very soon will be, void of all regard for his
country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty
of betraying his country, who had not before lost the
feeling of moral obligations in his private connections.
--Samuel Adams (1722—1803)
American revolutionary leader.
Letter to James Warren [4 November 1775].

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Prosperity doth best discover vice, but
adversity doth best discover virtue.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_Essays_ [1625] "Of Adversity"

I'm as pure as the driven slush.
--Tallulah Bankhead (1903—1968)
American actress.

Happiness and Virtue react upon each other,— the best are
not only the happiest, but the happiest are usually the best.
--Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803—1873)
British novelist and politician.
_The Duchess de la Valliθre_ [1836]

Let us say that I despise stupidity. Especially
when it masquerades as virtue.
--attributed to Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616), but
it is dialogue from the 1964 play "Man of La Mancha".

He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad
will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are
three things that never stand still.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words;
Addressed to Those Who Think_ [1820]

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Virtue is not solitary; it is bound
to have neighbors.
--Confucius (551—479 B.C.)
K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher.
Analects 4.25


The superior man thinks of virtue;
the small man thinks of comfort.
--Confucius (551—479 B.C.)
K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher.
Analects 4.11, tr. James Legge [1930]

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When was public virtue to be found
when private was not?
--William Cowper (1731—1800)
English poet and hymnodist.

Humility is the most difficult of all virtues to achieve;
nothing dies harder than the desire to think well of
oneself.
--T.S. Eliot (1888—1965)
Anglo-American poet, critic, and dramatist.
"Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca" [1927]

The only reward of virtue is virtue.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
"Friendship" _Essays_, First Series [1841]

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal
virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people
that I have ever known.
--F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896—1940)
American novelist.
_The Great Gatsby_, ch. 3 [1925]

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A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in
every district — all studied and appreciated as they merit —
are the principal support of virtue, morality and civil liberty.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.


I believe long habits of virtue have a
sensible effect on the countenance.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
In one of the "Busy-Body Papers"
"American Weekly Mercury" [18 February 1729].

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The virtue which requires to be ever guarded
is scarce worth the sentinel.
--Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774)
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.

We often dislike others for their
virtues as their vices.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
_Characteristics in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims_, #115 [1823]

Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like seasoned timber, never gives.
--George Herbert (1593—1633)
English religious poet.

Virtue has a veil, vice a mask.
--Victor Hugo (1802—1885)
French poet, dramatist, and novelist.

Love blinds us to faults, hatred to virtues.
--Moses Ibn Ezra (1060?—1138?)
Spanish philosopher and poet.

If no action is to be deemed virtuous for
which malice can imagine a sinister motive,
then there never was a virtuous action;...
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
To Martin Van Buren [1824].

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No people can be great who have ceased
to be virtuous.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain_ [1756]


Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues;
because, unless a man has that virtue, he has
no security for preserving any other.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791]


If he does really think that there is no distinction between
virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses, let
us count our spoons.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791]
"14 July 1763"

-

^

James Joyce (1882—1941)
Irish novelist

In his impoverished youth, Joyce once applied
for a job in a bank. 'Do you smoke?' asked the
bank manager.

'No,' replied his would-be employee.

'Do you drink?'

'No.'

'Do you go with girls?'

'No.'

The manager was unimpressed with this display
of virtue. 'Away with you!' he cried. 'You'd probably
rob the bank.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

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A womanly disposition, as shown in modesty and
submissiveness.

Womanly language. She should be careful in the
choice of words, and avoid lying and unseemly
expressions. She should speak when necessary,
and be silent at other times. She should not be
adverse to listening to others.

--Kaibara Ekken (1630—1714)
Japanese philosopher, travel writer, and botanist.
_Dojikun_ (Instructions for Children)
{on the two great virtues of women}

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However evil men may be they dare not be openly hostile
to virtue, and so when they want to attack it they pretend
to find it spurious, or impute crimes to it.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims_ [1665]

He who possess virtue in abundance
may be compared to an infant.
--Lao-tzu (c. 6th cent. B.C.)
The first philosopher of Chinese Taoism and alleged author of
the _Tao-te Ching_ (Chinese: Classic of the Way of Power).

If men were virtuous, there would be no need
of governments at all.
--James Madison (1751—1836)
Fourth president of the United States [1809—1817].
In Alistair Cooke _America_ [1973].

I love him who desireth not too many virtues. One
virtue is more a virtue than two.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.

Any institution which does not suppose the people good,
and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.
--Maximilien Robespierre (1758—1794)
French revolutionary.
"Declaration of the Rights of Man" [24 April 1792]

When you are younger you get blamed for crimes
you never committed and when you're older you
begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed.
It evens itself out.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.

Men's evil manners live in brass, their virtues
We write in water.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_King Henry VIII_, act 4, sc. 2, l. 45 [1613]

Virtue is more to be feared than vice,
because its excesses are not subject
to the regulation of conscience.
--Adam Smith (1723—1790)
Scottish economist.

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Be good and you will be lonesome.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
Holographed caption under frontispiece photograph
of the author in _Following the Equator_ [1897].


Why, you simple creatures, the weakest of all weak things
is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays_ [1904],
ch. 3 "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg"

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What is virtue, my friend? It is to do good.
Do it, that is enough. We shall not worry
about your motives.
--Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.
"Falseness of Human Virtues" in
_Philosophical Dictionary_ [1764], tr. Theodore Besterman [1971]

I hope I shall always possess firmness
and virtue enough to maintain what I
consider the most enviable of all titles,
the character of an honest man.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].

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I dislike stupidity, especially when it
masquerades as virtue.
--The Duke, "The Man of La Mancha"

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rectitude (adj.) ['rek-ti-tood]
Moral virtue or conduct, rightness of judgment.



Click picture to ZOOM
VISION

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see: "EYES"
see: "PERCEPTION"
see: "SEEING"
see "DISCOVERY" for other related links


They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind
lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
--Bible
New Testament, "Matthew" 15:14

Your vision will become clear only when you
look into your heart. Who looks outside,
dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
--Carl Gustav Jung (1875—1961)
Swiss psychologist.

Every man takes the limits of his own field
of vision for the limits of the world.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.
_Studies in Pessimism_ [1851] "Psychological Observations"



VOCABULARY

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see "LANGUAGE" for related links


I am lapidary but not eristic when I use big words.
--William F. Buckley Jr. (1925—2008)
American author and journalist.
1986 column.
In _Wall Street Journal_ [28 February 2008]

I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and
long words bother me.
--A. A. (Alan Alexander) Milne (1882—1956)
English writer for children.
_Winnie-the-Pooh_ [1926]

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lexicon (noun) ['lek-sκ-kahn]
A dictionary or vocabulary, a special set of words
(medical lexicon) or the set of words used by all
the speakers of a given language (mental lexicon).



VOLUNTEERING

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see "KINDNESS" for related links


America has always led by example. So who among us — will set the
example? Which of our citizens will lead us — in this next American
century? Everyone who steps forward today — to get one addict
off drugs, to convince one troubled teenager not to give up on life,
to comfort one AIDS patient, to help one hungry child. We have
within our reach — the promise — of a renewed America. We can find
meaning and reward by serving some higher purpose than ourselves.
A shining purpose. The illumination of a thousand points of light.
And it is expressed — by all who know the irresistible force of a
child's hand, of a friend who stands by you and stays there, a
volunteer's generous gesture, an idea — that is simply right. The
problems before us — may be different, but the key to solving
them — remains the same. It is the individual; the individual who
steps forward. And the state of our union is the union of each of
us, one to the other, the sum — of our friendships, marriages,
families and communities. We all have something to give. So, if
you can read, find someone who can't. If you've got a hammer,
find a nail. If you're not hungry, not lonely, not in trouble, seek
out someone who is. Join — the community of conscience. Do —
the hard work of freedom. And that — will define — the state
of our union.
--George H. W. Bush (1924— )
American Republican statesman and President [1989—1993].

The most solid comfort one can fall back upon is the thought that
the business of one's life is to help in some small way to reduce
the sum of ignorance, degradation, and misery on the face of this
beautiful Earth.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of
this life that no man can sincerely try to help
another without helping himself.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.

I have in irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured
that the world is a little better for my having lived in it.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].

A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone
shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as
the dog.
--Jack London [John Griffith Chaney] (1876—1916)
American novelist and short-story writer.

No man is so poor as to have nothing worth giving.
Give what you have. To someone it may be better
than you dare to think.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.

I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there
be any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now,
and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.
--William Penn (1644—1718)
Quaker leader and advocate of religious
freedom who oversaw the founding of
the American Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers
and other religious minorities of Europe {E.B.}.

Perhaps Milton Friedman put it best when he criticized
John Kennedy's famous [quotation from Gibran], `Ask
not what your country can do for you — ask what you
can do for your country.' As Mr Friedman said, `Neither
half of the statement expresses a relation between the
citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals
of free men in a free society.'
--Roger Pilon
In a letter to the Wall Street Journal [12 February 2002].

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.
--Booker T. Washington (1856—1915)
African-American educator.




VOTING

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see "POLITICS" for related links


Always vote for principle, though you may vote
alone, and you may cherish the sweetest
reflection that your vote is never lost.
--John Quincy Adams (1767—1848)
6th President of the United States.

Woman stock is rising in the market. I shall
not live to see women vote, but I'll come
and rap at the ballot box.
--Lydia Marie Child (1802—1880)
Amercan abolitionist and suffragist.
Letter to Sarah Shaw [3 August 1856].

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Nothing would induce me to vote for giving
women the franchise. I am not going to be
henpecked in a question of such importance.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
In Robert Lewis Taylor
_Winston Churchill: An Informal Study of Greatness_ [1952].


At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the
little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil,
making a little cross on a little bit of paper.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
1944 speech quoted in Martin Gilbert _Churchill: A Life_, p. 802 [1991].

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Sensible and intelligent women do not want to vote.
The relative positions to be assumed by man and woman
in the working out of our civilization were assigned
long ago by a higher intelligence than ours.
--Grover Cleveland (1837—1908)
22nd [1885-1889] and 24th [1893—1897] President of the U.S..

The man who can right himself by a vote
will seldom resort to a musket.
--James Fenimore Cooper (1789—1851)
American novelist.
_The American Democrat_ [1838]

Voting is the most basic essential of citizenship and I think
that any man or woman in this country who fails to avail
himself or herself of that right should hide in shame. I
truly wish there was some sort of badge of dishonor that
a non-voter would have to wear.
--India [Moffett] Edwards (1895—1990)
American political party executive; vice-chair
of the Democratic National Committee [1950—1956].
_Pulling No Punches_ [1977]

I never vote for anyone. I always
vote against.
--W. C. Fields [William Claude Dukenfield]
(1880—1946) American vaudeville star and film actor.

^^

Any avenues to political change in the South were effectively blocked. Blacks
simply lacked political power. No blacks held state or county offices in the
states of the old Confederacy. Very few blacks voted — though not from
apathy or choice. In the late nineteenth century, the southern states started
the process of getting rid of black voters; they finished off the job in the
twentieth. The states used every trick and stratagem in the books, and
some outside the books, to keep blacks out of voting booths. Anyone who
wanted to vote had to go through an obstacle course. In South Carolina
voters had to pay a poll tax, own three hundred dollars worth of property,
and "both read and write any section" of the South Carolina Constitution.
In Mississippi prospective voters had to be able to read sections of the
federal and state constitutions, and also give a "reasonable" interpretation
of what they had read. No blacks ever seemed to be able to pass these
tests; whites sailed through routinely (or were not even asked).
Troublesome or persistent blacks were given rougher treatment. As an
Alabama official put it: "At first, we used to kill them to keep them from
voting; when we got sick of doing that we began to steal their ballots; and
when stealing their ballots got to troubling our consciences we decided to
handle the matter legally, fixing it so they couldn't vote."

--Lawrence M. Friedman (1930— )
_American Law in the 20th Century_ [2002]
Ch. 5 "Race Relations and Civil Liberties" p. 114

^^

I always voted at my party's call.
And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.
--W. S. Gilbert (1836—1911)
English writer of comic and satirical verse.
_H.M.S. Pinafore_, act I [1878]

In most places in the country, voting is looked upon
as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it's a *sport*.
In Chicago not only *your* vote counts, but all kinds
of other votes — kids, dead folks, and so on.
--Dick Gregory (1932— )
American comedian and social activist.
_Dick Gregory's Political Primer_ [1972]

The voice of the people has been said to be the
voice of God; and, however generally this maxim
has been quoted and believed, it is not true to
fact. The people are turbulent and changing,
they seldom judge or determine right.
--Alexander Hamilton (1755or57—1804)
New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention,
major author of the _Federalist Papers_, and first
secretary of the Treasury of the United States [1789—1795].
In a speech at the Constitutional Convention [18 June 1787].

^

Benjamin Jowett (1817—1893)
English classical scholar.

Jowett once submitted a matter to the vote of the dons of Balliol
College. The result did not please him, he announced. 'The vote
is twenty-two to two. I see we are deadlocked.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

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Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean?
It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not
avowed, autocrats, We choose between Tweedledum and
Tweedledee.

You ask for votes for women. What good can votes do when
ten-elevenths of the land of Great Britain belongs to 200,000
and only one-eleventh to the rest of the 40,000,000? Have
your men with their millions of votes freed themselves from
this injustice?

--Helen Keller (1880—1968)
American author and educator who was blind and deaf.
Letter to British suffragist [1911].

-

LADIES: My own earnest, heartfelt conviction is that
you are a pack of cats. I use the word 'cats' advisedly,
and I mean every letter of it. I want to go on record before
this gathering as being strongly and unalterably opposed to
Woman Suffrage until you get it. After that I favour it. My
reasons for opposing the suffrage are of a kind you couldn't
understand. But all men — except the few that I see at this
meeting — understand them by instinct.

As you may, however, succeed as a result of the fuss
you are making — in getting votes, I have thought it best to
come. Also — I am free to confess — wanted to see what
you looked like.

On this last head I am disappointed. Personally I like
women a good deal fatter than most of you are, and better
looking. As I look around this gathering I see one or two of
you that are not so bad, but on the whole not many. But
my own strong personal predilection is and remains in favour
of a woman who can cook, mend clothes, talk when I want
her to, and give me the kind of admiration to which I am
accustomed.

Let me, however, say in conclusion that I am altogether
in sympathy with your movement to this extent. If you ever
*do* get votes — and the indications are that you will (blast
you) — I want your votes, and I want all of them.

--Stephen Butler Leacock (1869—1944)
Canadian humorist.
"Truthful Speech of a District Politician to a Ladies' Suffrage Society"

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In dictatorships the masses vote with their feet.
--V.I. Lenin (1870—1924)
Russian revolutionary and first head of the Soviet state (1917—1924).
Attributed in "N.Y. Times" [4 November 1954].

American youth attributes much more importance to
arriving at driver's license age than at voting age.
--H. (Herbert) Marshall McLuhan (1911—1980)
Canadian professor and author.
_Understanding Media_ [1964]

'Vote early and vote often,' the advice openly
displayed on the election banners in one of
our northern cities.
--William Porcher Miles (1822—1899)
American politician.
Speech in the House of Representatives [31 March 1858].

Why We Oppose Votes for Men
1. Because man's place is the armory.
2. Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than
by fighting about it.
3. Because if men should adopt peaceable methods women will no longer look
up to them.
4. Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural selves
in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms and drums.
5. Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games
and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to
force renders them peculiarly unfit for the task of government.
--Alice Duer Miller (1874—1942)
American writer and poet.
_Are Women People? A Book of Rhymes for Suffrage Times_ (1915)

Boss Tweed: "As long as I count the Votes,
what are you going to do about it?"
--Thomas Nast (1840—1902)
German-born American cartoonist.
Caption of cartoon _Harper's Weekly_ [7 October 1871]

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
--attributed to George Jean Nathan (1882—1958)
American drama critic and editor.
In Clifton Fadiman {ed.} _The American Treasury, 1455—1955_ [1955].

The right to vote is a consequence, not a primary cause, of a free social
system — and its value depends on the constitutional structure implementing
and strictly delimiting the voters' power; unlimited majority rule is an instance
of the principle of tyranny. Outside the context of a free society, who would
want to die for the right to vote? Yet that is what the American soldiers were
asked to die for — not even for their own vote, but to secure that privilege
for the South Vietnamese, who had no other rights and no knowledge of
rights or freedom.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
In _The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought_
The Ayn Rand Library, Volume V, [1989], pt. 2, ch. 14.

The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak
or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Woman's
Rights' with all its attendant horrors on which her poor, feeble
sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and
propiety. It is a subject which makes the Queen so furious
that she cannot contain herself. God created men and women
different — then let them remain each in their own position.
--Queen Victoria (1819—1901)
Queen of the United Kingdom [1837—1901].
Memorandum on women's suffrage [29 May 1870].

Half of the American people never read a newspaper.
Half never voted for president. One hopes it is the
same half.
--Gore Vidal (1925— )
American writer.

-

When I die I want to be buried in Chicago
so I can still be active in politics.
--anon.
(Referring to the voter registration of the dead.)

-----

plebiscite (noun)
Vote of all citizens: a vote by a whole electorate
to decide a question of importance.

suffrage (noun) ['sκ-frij]
The right to vote.




VULGARITY

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see "COMMUNICATION" for related links


The limerick is furtive and mean.
You must keep her in close quarantine.
Or she sneaks to the slums
And promptly becomes
Disorderly, drunk, and obscene.
--Morris Bishop (1893—1973)
American linguist and writer of light verse.
quoted in Richard Lederer _The Cunning Linguist_ [2003]

A vulgar man is captious and jealous; eager and
impetuous about trifles. He suspects himself to
be slighted, and thinks everything that is said
meant at him.
--Lord Chesterfield [Philip Dormer Stanhope] (1694—1773)
British writer and politician.

As always, the British especially shudder at the latest American vulgarity,
and then they embrace it with enthusiasm two years later.
--Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004)
British-born American broadcater and journalist.
_American Way_ [March 1975]

[To two women who commended him for on the
omission of vulgar words from his Dictionary:]
What! my Dears! then you have been looking
for them?
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
Quoted in Henry G. Beste _Personal and Literary Memorials_ [1829].

Many women, particularly young women, have claimed the right to
use the most explicit sex terms, including extremely vulgar ones, in
public as well as private. But it is men, far more than women, who
have been liberated by this change. For now that women use these
terms, men no longer need to watch their own language in the
presence of women. But is this a gain for women?
--Margaret Mead (1901—1978)
American anthropologist.

-----

billingsgate (noun) ['bi-lings-geyt]
Nathan Bailey, in 'An universal etymological English dictionary'
(1721) defined a billingsgate as "a scolding impudent Slut," but
the word has gone on to refer, as well, to the stream of abusive
speech used by these impudent women. Today it may refer to
a woman who uses abusive language or the abusive language
itself.
Its eponym is the Billingsgate fish market in London.
Billingsgate was one of the two water-gates to London from the
Thames (between the Tower and the London Bridge) when the
open fish market was proclaimed there in 1699. The Billingsgate
fish market thereafter became known not only for the smelly
fruits of the sea on sale there, but for the rancid language of
the fishwives who mongered them. In 'Vanity Fair,' Thackeray
wrote "Mr. Osborne . . . cursed Billingsgate with an emphasis
worthy of the place" and by 1799 even Thomas Jefferson had
acquired the word: "We disapprove the constant billingsgate
poured on them officially."

lubricious [loo-BRISH-us], adjective:
1. Lustful; lewd.
2. Stimulating or appealing to sexual desire
or imagination.
3. Having a slippery or smooth quality.

meretricious (adj.) [mer-κ-'trish-κs]
Gaudy, vulgar, especially attracting attention by
being gaudy or vulgar. Meretriciously is the adverb
and meretriciousness, the noun.

ordure (noun) ['or-jκr]
Excrement, filth; moral filthiness, such as filthy
language, profanity, vulgarity.

plebeian [plih-BEE-uhn], adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to the Roman plebs, or common people.
2. Of or pertaining to the common people.
3. Vulgar; common; crude or coarse in nature or manner.
noun:
1. One of the plebs, or common people of ancient Rome; opposed
to patrician.
2. One of the common people or lower classes.
3. A coarse, crude, or vulgar person.
Ex.: "During the Soviet era, anyone of any ethnic background who
did the dirty deeds demanded of them to get ahead was rewarded
with a crummy but better-than-average apartment, a steady supply
of cheap sausage and low-grade vodka, and a host of other plebeian
amenities too dull to talk about here."
--Jeffrey Tayler, "Russia's Other World," interview by Toby Lester,
_The Atlantic_, March 10, 1999
Synonyms: coarse, common, low, lowborn, unwashed, vulgar.

raffish (adj.) ['rζ-fish]
1. Vulgar in taste, appearance, dissolute in behavior; rakish or
2. Dashing, carefree or unconventionally fun-loving; rakish.

ribald [RIB-uhld; RY-bawld], adjective:
1. Characterized by or given to vulgar humor; coarse.
2. A ribald person; a lewd fellow.


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