Unsubscribe - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ "There are . . . others who, in their exaltation of themselves, force themselves to find calumnies against our words. They produce argumentative investigations, they track down petty phrases, they are mad about trivialities, they are 'wranglers and thimble-riggers'. . . . The damnable sophists are proud of their skill; they twitter in their subtleties; they labor throughout their lives over distinctions between words and the appropriate combination and grouping of expressions; they are shown to be more continuous in their cooing than turtledoves. They tickle and titillate the ears of those who are eager to be titilated, effeminately, in my view -- a literal torrent of words and a drop of sense. They are like old shoes. The rest of them has weakened or admits water; only the tongue remains. . . . These people . . . stretch the warp without weaving anything" (Clement of Alexandria, Strometeis 1.3.22 ff.).