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Commencement Quote by John Barth

“innocence is ignorance; ignorance is illusion; and Commencement, while it certainly is a metaphor, is no illusion. Commencement's for the disillusioned, not for the innocent.” quote by John Barth — Download Open image

““innocence is ignorance; ignorance is illusion; and Commencement, while it certainly is a metaphor, is no illusion. Commencement's for the disillusioned, not for the innocent.””

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Commencement Commencement Certainly Commencement Disillusioned Graduation Illusion Commencement Innocence Ignorance

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Tis e'er the wont of simple folk to prize the deed and o'erlook the motive, and of learned folk to discount the deed and…

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“So, I begin each day with a gesture of cynicism, and close it with a gesture of faith; or, if you prefer, begin it…

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I admire writers who can make complicated things simple, but my own talent has been to make simple things complicated.

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“That clever folk care less for what ye think than why ye think it.”

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Printed prose is historically a most peculiar, almost an aberrant way of telling stories, and by far the most inherently anesthetic: It is the…

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“There's a great difficulty in making choices if you have any imagination at all. Faced with such a multitude of desireable choices, no one…

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Self knowledge is always bad news.

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The first obligation of the writer is to be interesting. To be interesting; not to change the world.

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Yet everyone begins in the same place; how is it that most go along without difficulty but a few lose their way?

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A curious thing about written literature: It is about four thousand years old, but we have no way of knowing whether four thousand years…

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Nothing is loathsomer than the self-loathing of a self one loathes.

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He wishes he had never entered the funhouse. But he has. Then he wishes he were dead. But he's not. Therefore he will construct…

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More Commencement quotes

En Ma Fin Est Ma Commencement - In my end is my beginning.

Philippa Gregory

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The closing period of the fifteenth century witnessed the slow but sure increase of the churches of the Brethren. Although far from being unmolested,…

Ezra Hall Gillett

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The whole point of a commencement speech is to say something encouraging.

Pamela Druckerman

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I never expected to join the ranks of commencement speakers, especially at my alma mater. I had a tough time there, left eagerly, and…

Stephanie Ruhle

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Delight is the secret. Learn of pure delight and thou shalt learn of God. What then was the commencement of the whole matter? Existence…

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The year 1826 was remarkable for the commencement of one of those fearful droughts to which we have reason to believe the climate of…

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The commencement speech is not, I think, a wholly satisfactory manifestation of our culture.

John Kenneth Galbraith

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“The most perfect life develops as a circle, and terminates in its beginning, making it impossible to say, This is the commencement, that the…

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There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.

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If you think that happiness means total peace, you will never be happy. Peace comes from the acceptance of the part of you that…

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There happen to be whole large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine,…

David Foster Wallace

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It is clear the future holds great opportunities. It also holds pitfalls. The trick will be to avoid the pitfalls, seize the opportunities, and…

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