Quotes from the website

This is the Quotes From The Website category.

All quotes by Marshall McLuhan and others from “The Medium is the Massage” (the lecture, the book, the film, the magazine and/or the record, single and remix).

The wheel …is an extension of the foot.

— Marshall McLuhan, see also “Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man”, p. 46

“You is feeling like you was lost in the bush, boy?”

— James Joyce, “Finnigans Wake”

“I do believe it. I really believe it.”

— discussion in the serie ‘Word Count’ on WBAI-FM with John Culkin and Quentin Fiore. Moderator: Samuel Blazer.

“We don’t know who discovered water, but we’re pretty sure it wasn’t the fish.”

— John Culkin, quoted by Howard Gossage in “Ramparts Magazine”, April 1966, p. 37

“Such as… ?”

“SHE WAS INDIGNANT WHEN I SUGGESTED THE USE OF AN APHRODISIAC. WHY? NATURALLY SHE CONSIDERS TV A WASTE OF TIME.”

— John Cage, “Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)”

“{And} who are you?” [said the Caterpillar.]”

— Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

“The
Medium
Is the
Massage.”

— Marshall McLuhan

Rite words in rote order.

— James Joyce quoted in “The Gutenberg Galaxy” by Marshall McLuhan and “Explorations” #8 by Marshall McLuhan

“This is the place to see it from fellows.”

“If I don’t smoke, someone else will…”

— Erik Satie quoted in “Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)” by John Cage

“What does it all say? I’m not too often concerned about this. It’s just a phase.”

“[You mean, like]
… the massage?

— Sam Zacks

“Whence did the wond’rous mystic art arise, Of painting SPEECH, and speaking to the eyes? That we by tracing magic lines are taught, How to embody, and to colour THOUGHT?”

— translation of Brébeuf’s verse translation of Lucan’s “Pharsalia” in “The Origin and Progress of Writing” by Thomas Astle

“Soon, all that will be required of us will be one hour’s work per year.”

— Buckminster Fuller, quoted in “Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)” by John Cage

“[It’s a little bit like] the Balinese have a saying [/who say]: We have no art. We do everything as well as [possible/] we can.

— Marshall McLuhan, see “Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man”, p. 73

The medium is the massage. {The medium is the massage.}”

— parrot

“Cool” means identification with the creative process.”

— Marshall McLuhan, see also “Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man”, p. 24

“Next is my page 19. Speech 1. Innumerable confusion.”

There ain’t no grammatical errors in a non-literate society.

— Marshall McLuhan, see also “The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man”, p. 238

“When
these
ratios
change,
men change.

— Marshall McLuhan, see also “Address at Vision 65” , p. 9 and “Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man”, p. 98

“But, electric technology doesn’t centralise, it decentralises human energies, because it makes possible anything happening anywhere at the same time.”

— Marshall McLuhan

“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us…”

— John Culkin, “A Schoolman’s Guide to Marshall McLuhan” (The Saturday Review)

The alphabet is an aggressive and militant absorber and transformer of cultures.

— Marshall McLuhan, “The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man”, p. 48

“The medium is the mess age.”

— Marshall McLuhan

“Movies are better than ever!”

— Marshall McLuhan

Good Morning!

“Where is A, it precedes B, and B follows A, and precedes C.”

— Bertrand Russell, “The Prinicple of Individuation” in “Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits”

“Drop this jiggery-pokery and talk straight turkey.”

— James Joyce, “Finnegans Wake”

“Uh-ah.”

— Marshall McLuhan

“I come from a 19th century country, Canada, and this gives me a great advantage in looking at the 20th century.”

— Marshall McLuhan

“AS LONG AS ONE HUMAN BEING IS HUNGRY, THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE IS HUNGRY.”

— Buckminster Fuller, quoted in “Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)” by John Cage

“So the computer offers many advantages besides just the threat to wipe out jobs and provide leisure.”

— Marshall McLuhan

“WHAT’LL HAPPEN WHEN INTELLIGENCE IS RECOGNIZED AS A GLOBAL RESOURCE?”

— Buckminster Fuller, quoted in “Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)” by John Cage

Schizophrenia may be a necessary consequence of literacy.

— Marshall McLuhan, “The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man”, p. 22

The dateline is the only organizing principle in a newspaper.

— Marshall McLuhan

“Take it easy, but take it.”

— John Cage, “Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)”

The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.

— Marshall McLuhan, “The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man”, p. 31