Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking. -John Maynard Keynes

From a diary entry of Tolstoy, quoted in Viktor Shklovsky’s “Art as Technique”:

I was cleaning and, meandering about, approached the divan and couldn’t remember whether or not I had dusted it. Since these movements are habitual and unconscious I could not remember and felt that it was impossible to remember – so that if I had dusted it and forgot – that is, had acted unconsciously, then it was the same as if I had not. If some conscious person had been watching, then the fact could be established. If, however, no one was looking, or looking on unconsciously, if the whole complex lives of many people go on unconsciously, then such lives are as if they had never been.

Read the (short) essay, Art as Technique, which discusses the effect of defamiliarization in language. Thanks to Alice!