#names

He walked through the woods like a young Adam, naming creation. I learned to shape my mouth to the words—sasumuneash for cranberry, tunockuquas for frog. So many things grew and lived here that were strange to us, because they had not been in England. We named the things of this place in reference to things that were not of this place—cat briar for the thickets of vine whose thorns were narrow and claw-like; lambskill for the low-growing laurel that had proved poisonous to some of our hard-got tegs. But there had been no cats or lambs here until we brought them. So when he named a plant or a creature, I felt that I heard the true name of the thing for the first time. ↗

— Geraldine Brooks

#names #nature #nature

Lolita is famous, not I. I am an obscure, doubly obscure, novelist with an unpronounceable name. ↗

— Vladimir Nabokov

#fame #lolita #names #obscure #writers

Apollo?” I guessed… He put a finger to his lips. “I’m incognito. Call me Fred.” A god named Fred? ↗

— Rick Riordan

#gods #olympians #percy-jackson #names

It's Smith, actually.' Dr Smith smiled, bowing. 'I've remembered that my name is Smith. Almost definitely. Good old English name. Hopefully means 'noble valiant warriot' and not 'he who hits kittens with a hammer.' You'd be surprised the derivations of common surnames in the English countryside... ↗

— James Goss

#surnames #the-doctor #noble

Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams - they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do - they all contain truths. ↗

— Muhammad Ali

#different #different names #just #lakes #names

I always have trouble remembering three things: faces, names, and - I can't remember what the third thing is. ↗

— Fred Allen

#faces #i #i always #names #remember

I knew quite well, when I gave the names of our agents in the Soviet Union, that I was exposing them to the full machinery of counterespionage and the law, and then prosecution and capital punishment. ↗

— Aldrich Ames

#capital #capital punishment #exposing #full #gave

Nevertheless there are certain peaks, canons, and clear meadow spaces which are above all compassing of words, and have a certain fame as of the nobly great to whom we give no familiar names. ↗

— Mary Austin

#canons #certain #clear #fame #familiar

In English we must use adjectives to distinguish the different kinds of love for which the ancients had distinct names. ↗

— Mortimer Adler

#different #different kinds #distinct #distinguish #english

I'm entitled to collect my fair share of community property without being called names. ↗

— Gloria Allred

#called #collect #community #entitled #fair