Wordy Wednesday: Political Correctness

“The truth has become an insult.”

― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“Opinions are made to be changed – or how is truth to be got at?”

– Lord Byron

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

– Buddha

“Offence is so easily given. And where the ‘minority’ issue is involved, the rules seem to shift about: most of the time a person who is female/black/disabled/gay wants this not to be their defining characteristic; you are supposed to be blind to it. But then, on other occasions, you are supposed to observe special sensitivity, or show special respect.”

― Lynne Truss

“Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance.”

– W. Clement Stone

“I would like to say that political correctness is going to kill American liberalism if it is not fought to the death by people like me for the dangers it represents to free speech, to the exchange of ideas, to openheartedness, or to the spirit of art itself. Political correctness has a stranglehold on academia, on feminism, and on the media. It is a form of both madness and maggotry”

― Pat Conroy

“It is a form of generational narcissism to change texts to suit one’s own needs.”

― Luke Timothy Johnson

“The truth is that American universities are among the safest and most coddled environments ever devised by man. The idea that one should attend college to be protected from ideas one might find controversial or offensive could only occur to someone who had jettisoned any hope of acquiring an education.”

― Roger Kimball

“Democracy was supposed to champion freedom of speech, and yet the simple rules of table decorum could clamp down on the rights their forefathers had fought and died for.”

― E.A. Bucchianeri

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

– Flannery O’Connor

“Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.”

– Henri Frederic Amiel

“By doubting we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth.”

– Peter Abelard

“You’re not allowed to call them dinosaurs any more,“ said Yo-less. “It’s speciesist. You have to call them pre-petroleum persons.”

― Terry Pratchett

“As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.”

― Gore Vidal