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Mark Forsyth Quotes

If you are to use Alexander Graham Bell’s product, which is to say the blower, you should, in all courtesy, use it as he would have wished; and Dr Bell insisted that all phone calls should begin with the words ‘Ahoy,

If you are to use Alexander Graham Bell’s product, which is to say the blower, you should, in all courtesy, use it as he would have wished; and Dr Bell insisted that all phone calls should begin with the words ‘Ahoy, ahoy’. Nobody knows why he insisted this – he had no connection to the navy – but insist he did and started every phone call that way. Nobody else did, and it was at the suggestion of his great rival Edison that people took to saying ‘Hello’. This seems unfair.

Mark Forsyth
Phones, People, Navy
Mark Forsyth (2012). “Mark Forysth's Gemel Edition: The Etymologicon and The Horologicon ebook bundle”, p.334, Icon Books Ltd

But Shakespeare never drank coffee. Nor did Julius Caesar, or Socrates. Alexander the Great conquered half the world without even a café latte to perk him up. The pyramids were designed and constructed without a whiff of a sniff of caffeine. Coffee was introduced to Europe only in 1615. The achievements of antiquity are quite enough to cow the modern human, but when you realize that they did it all without caffeine it becomes almost unbearable.

Mark Forsyth
Coffee, Europe, Pyramids
Mark Forsyth (2011). “The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language”, p.154, Icon Books Ltd

A poet is not somebody who has great thoughts. That is the menial duty of the philosopher. A poet is somebody who expresses his thoughts, however commonplace they may be, exquisitely. That is the one and only difference between the poet and everybody else.

Mark Forsyth
Differences, May, Philosopher
Mark Forsyth (2013). “The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase”, p.15, Icon Books Ltd

Anyone who has ever taken out a mortgage will be unsurprised to learn that it is, literally, a /death pledge/.

Mark Forsyth
Taken, Mortgage, Pledge
Mark Forsyth (2011). “The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language”, p.214, Icon Books Ltd

Reality changes words far more than words can ever change reality.

Mark Forsyth
Motivation, Inspiration, Reality
"How Does History Change The Meaning Of Words?". "TED Radio Hour" with Guy Raz, www.npr.org. December 13, 2013.

Poetry is much more important than the truth, and, if you don't believe that, try using the two methods to get laid.

Mark Forsyth
Believe, Two, Important
Mark Forsyth (2011). “The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language”, p.203, Icon Books Ltd

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it was the sausage-maker who disposed of the body.

Mark Forsyth
Cat, Curiosity, Body

The problem with the alphabet is that it bears no relation to anything at all, and when words are arranged alphabetically they are uselessly separated. In the OED, for example, aardvarks are 19 volumes away from the zoo, yachts are 18 volumes from the beach, and wine is 17 volumes from the nearest corkscrew.

Mark Forsyth
Beach, Zoos, Wine
Mark Forsyth (2013). “The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language”, p.9, Penguin

Freud said that everything was secretly sexual. But etymologists know that sex is secretly food.

Mark Forsyth
Sex, Said, Knows
Mark Forsyth (2012). “Mark Forysth's Gemel Edition: The Etymologicon and The Horologicon ebook bundle”, p.46, Icon Books Ltd

So familiar are eggs to us, however, that in the eighteenth century they were referred to as cackling farts, on the basis that chickens cackled all the time and eggs came out of the back of them.

Mark Forsyth
Eggs, Fart, Century
Mark Forsyth (2012). “The Horologicon”, p.36, Icon Books

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