2 Matching Annotations
- Nov 2021
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www.kiplingsociety.co.uk www.kiplingsociety.co.uk
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I am, by calling, a dealer in words; and words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. Not only do words infect, ergotise, narcotise, and paralyse, but they enter into and colour the minutest cells of the brain, very much as madder mixed with a stag’s food at the Zoo colours the growth of the animal’s antlers.
[...] words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.<br/> —Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) in "Surgeons and the Soul" address at the annual dinner of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, February 14, 1923.
See Also
- publication of address in book form: https://librarysearch.williams.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay/01WIL_ALMA2192324460002786/01WIL_SPECIAL
- cross-reference: Cliffsnotes
- Review of speech/dinner: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1707037/
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- Aug 2021
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www.gutenberg.org www.gutenberg.org
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“For a while he trampled with impunity on laws human anddivine but, as he was obsessed with the delusion that two andtwo makes five, he fell, at last a victim to the relentless rulesof humble Arithmetic.“Remember, O stranger, Arithmetic is the first of thesciences and the mother of safety.”BRANDEIS
Interestingly enough this sentiment is more commonly expressed through Kipling in late modernity. At the time this book was written Kipling would have been still alive, but so was Louis Brandeis. Korzybski in any case has the sense of necessity at the heart of a strong modern materialism.
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