31 Quotes by Kenneth Burke

Creation implies authority in the sense of originator.

Language does our thinking for us.

Even if any given terminology is a reflection of reality, by its very nature as a terminology it must be a selection of reality; and to this extent it must function also as a deflection of reality,

Man is rotten with perfection.

If decisions were a choice between alternatives, decisions would come easy. Decision is the selection and formulation of alternatives.

The use of words by human agents to form attitudes or induce actionsin other human agents.

Dignity belongs to the conquered....

Words are like planets, each with its own gravitational pull.

Man is/the symbol-using (symbol making, symbol-misusing) animal/inventor of the negative (or moralized by the negative)/separated from his natural condition by instruments of his own making/goaded by the spirit of hierarchy (or moved by the sense of order)/and rotten with perfection.