Erik Erikson

Every adult, whether he is a follower or a leader, a member of a mass or of an elite, was once a child. He was once small. A sense of smallness forms a substratum in his mind, ineradicably. His triumphs will be measured against this smallness; his defeats will substantiate it.

American Psychologist

Anthony Marra

A novel can grant humanity even to those who act inhumanely, and by making men and women of monsters, it can offer not only a ground-level view of a particular conflict, but a descent into the substratum of human nature capable of the incomprehensible.

American Writer

Piet Mondrian

I do not know how I shall develop, but for the present, I am continuing to work within ordinary, generally known terrain, different only because of a deep substratum, which leads those who are receptive to sense the finer regions.

Dutch Artist

John Edgar Wideman

What basketball expresses is what jazz expresses. Certain cultural predispositions to make art. All African-American art has a substratum, or baseline, of improvisation and spontaneity. You find that in both basketball and jazz.

T. S. Eliot

Poetry may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves.

American Poet

P. T. Barnum

The foundation of success in life is good health: that is the substratum fortune; it is also the basis of happiness. A person cannot accumulate a fortune very well when he is sick.

American Entertainer

Refers to real, tangible layers, like rock or sediment, not abstract ones.

Physical layer

Mostly used in specialized fields such as geology or construction.

Technical contexts

Emphasizes the supporting role of a layer beneath another.

Supportive nature

It suggests a fundamental belief or principle that supports larger concepts.

Foundation of ideas

Used metaphorically to talk about immaterial, conceptual foundations.

Abstract concepts

It is what comes before something else, providing a base for future growth.

Preceding development

Describes how one language shapes or contributes to another over time.

Language influence

Implies historical interaction between languages within a region.

Historical aspect

Indicates underlying linguistic features not immediately obvious.

Substratum