“Words, words, words, however used – whatever they symbolise, request, or tell – say
more! – showing in between, the antics of all motives! Yes, word rendering offers the quickest of deaths to flabby ideas, and also the most poignant, suggestive, contagious substitutive, and lasting means known to convey anything. Most deadly virus! most potent abcreation, and magic subtley... even your erasure has you believing... We are overstuffed with words – now a veritable systole and diastole of mind: whether or not we correctly articulate, we suffer post-prandial torpor.”
Austin Osman Spare, ‘Micrologus’, (Number 7) c.1952
AOS 1955
"Words and magic were in the beginning one and the same thing, and even today words retain much of their magical power. By words one of us can give another the greatest happiness or bring about utter despair; by words the teacher imparts his knowledge to the student; by words the orator sweeps his audience with him and determines its judgments and decisions. Words call forth emotions and are universally the means by which we influence our fellow-creatures."
Sigmund Freud
