Quotations and Literature Forum

Someone had recently raised the question (in another forum) as to why we use profanity? "Cussing, why do we do it?"

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.

--Mark Twain
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"There ought to be a room in every house to swear in."
-- Mark Twain

"When angry, count four; when very angry, swear."
-- Mark Twain

I know someone besides Twain must have said something on the subject...

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Michael Moncur
Owner and maintainer, The Quotations Page

Spotted this one in alt.quotations today.

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Michael Moncur
Owner and maintainer, The Quotations Page

"Take away the right to say 'fúck' and you take away the right to say 'fúck the government.'
"You're trying to stop the information! You see, thats where it's at... and you can't! You can't stop the information, because the information keeps the country strong! You need a deviant! Don't shut him up!"

- Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce in the film _Lenny_

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Regards,
Lou
I feel like a fugitive from th' law of averages.
— Bill Mauldin

Even Paul (the Apostle, not the Beatle) wrote about it:

Put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
~Colossians 3:8, Bible, KJV

Here's a good book you can curl up with
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 10-6477502

Mark Twain on 'profanity'
http://www.twainquotes.com/Profanity.html
"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."~Mark Twain

"It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme."
~ William Cowper

"Nothing is greater or more fearful sacrilege than to prostitute the great name of God to the petulancy of an idle tongue."
~ Jeremy Taylor

"The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it."
~ George Washington

Back in 1976 I was camped at Cedars of Lebanon State Park all summer. Another college student was camped down the road and we were neighbors. Sometimes when we were sitting around the campfire he would tell vulgar jokes. I was unaccustomed to hearing such profanity but his jokes made me laugh. The guy was a lifeguard and I was a maintenance worker. He had been to cool school but every now and then he would loose his cool and swear. He liked to do mechanical work on his car during the leisure hours of evening. If he couldn't fix what he was trying to fix he would call it a "common whore". The third time that he used that obscenity I let loose with a horse laugh. He asked me what was so @#$% funny? Sometimes he would digress and say "you son of a whore".

I had never heard that version of profanity but I took a liking to it. Later in the summer when we were sitting by the fire, something exploded in the fire and a spark landing on my leg. It was so sudden that I said "You Spanish Whore! Mr. Cool let loose with some robust laughter.

Haha... If you wrote a book, I would defiantly buy it.

Just an idea.