Idiomatic Quotes

#1. All translation is a compromise - the effort to be literal and the effort to be idiomatic.

Benjamin Jowett

#2. I do not believe in pure idioms. I think there is naturally a desire, for whoever speaks or writes, to sign in an idiomatic, irreplaceable manner.

Jacques Derrida

#3. When you doubt between words, use the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic. Eschew fine words as you would rouge; love simple ones as you would the native roses on your cheek.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

#4. The Colonel grunted. "In my experience, those things don't have to try to scare the shit out of anyone. If she wanted you dead or broken, you would be. Vampires have - idiomatic speech patterns. You may have simply misunderstood her." "She called me a cold cut.

Peter Watts

#5. Idiomatic expressions like "hungry as a horse" persisted for decades after the last horse had perished.

Kat Ross

#6. she constantly shifts back and forth between her "literate" narrator's voice and a highly idiomatic black voice

Zora Neale Hurston

#7. You think about every piece of idiomatic speech adopted by white men over the past ten or twenty years; virtually all of it comes from hip-hop.

Jess Row

#8. Its very variety, subtlety, and utterly irrational, idiomatic complexity makes it possible to say things in English which simply cannot be said in any other language.

Robert A. Heinlein

#9. The greatness of Mac Rebennack, alias, Dr. John, also known as John Crieux, rests on his command of the musical use of idiomatic expression. Not a technically well-endowed singer, nor a great songwriter, he leaves his mark through the discipline and control he exerts over all that he touches.

Jon Landau

#10. I'm interested in complexity, in the mathematical sense, as well as the idiomatic sense. The idea of emergence - that it's possible for complex patterns to arise out of many simple interactions - is fascinating.

Hari Kunzru

#11. 'The Sound of Things Falling' may be a page turner, but it's also a deep meditation on fate and death. Even in translation, the superb quality of Vasquez's prose is evident, captured in Anne McLean's idiomatic English version. All the novel's characters are well imagined, original and rounded.

Edmund White

#12. The true speech of man is idiomatic, if not of the earth and sky, then at least of the saloon and the bleachers.

Walter Lippmann

#13. Let it go to feel the freshness of life.

Debasish Mridha

#14. Would you like to depress anyone else?

Niall Horan

#15. Reason is poor propaganda when opposed by the yammering, unceasing lies of shrewd and evil and self-serving men.

Heinlein Robert A.

#16. Is the cafeteria food messing with me, or is babe glowing? Blake said.

A&E Kirk

#17. We hunger for nobility: the rare words and acts that harmonize simplicity and truth.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

#18. Earlier today, the jury at the Martha Stewart trial reached a verdict. Martha was found guilty on all charges. In a related story, there's a huge sale at K-Mart.

Conan O'Brien