‘Spine-tingling’ is a great phrase, that can either be a metaphor, or a literal phrase.
But do any of you know of sayings that genuinely send a tingle down your spine?
I.e. all or most of the time you say, hear or think them, you get an literal pricking down the back of your neck?
I have at least two.
Truth is treason in the empire of lies.
This is various attributed to George Orwell, the English socialist and author of 1984; and Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican politician and thought leader.
I think part of the chill effect may come from my great love of the music of Jordan Page.
Here’s one of his songs!
Another one is:
The grave supplies plenty of time for silence.
A slightly fuller version is:
Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity.
Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence.
The late Christopher Hitchens wrote these words, in his ‘Letters to Young Contrarian.’ Hitchens is best described by the words ‘tainted brilliance.’ Damned beyond redemption by his support for the Iraq War, and miraculously resurrected at the last moment by his brutal volley of Hitchslaps, and his torrent of merciless salvos against the cynical and worthless ‘talented mediocrities’ of all stripes; it has hard to be anything other than ambivalent about this figure.
Maybe, in the words of his holy (and Satanic) guru George ‘Dubya’ Bush:
History will be his judge.