WORDS QUOTES V

quotations about words

A word in earnest is as good as a speech.

CHARLES DICKENS

Bleak House

Tags: Charles Dickens


Talk is never just words.

BERNARD BECKETT

Genesis

Tags: Bernard Beckett


A good word costs as little as a bad one, and is worth more.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms

Tags: Benjamin Whichcote


In silence you can't hide anything ... as you can in words.

AUGUST STRINDBERG

The Ghost Sonata

Tags: August Strindberg


Leave words to them whom words, not doings, move.

ARTHUR SYMONS

"Variations Upon Love"

Tags: Arthur Symons


Prowling the meanings of a word, prowling the history of a person, no use expecting a flood of light. Human words have no main switch. But all those little kidnaps in the dark. And then the luminous, big, shivering, discandied, unrepentant, barking web of them that hangs in your mind when you turn back to the page you were trying to translate...

ANNE CARSON

Nox

Tags: Anne Carson


There are times when people aren't able to acknowledge or interpret an action but words are definite.

ANGIE JURGENS

"The power of words, through the eyes of a writer", Journal Star, January 30, 2016


After all is said and done, more is said than done.

AESOP

Aesop's Fables

Tags: Aesop


There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.

THOMAS REID

Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

Tags: Thomas Reid


As the bud a leaf, so at last the thought becomes a word.

RICHARD GARNETT

De Flagello Myrtes

Tags: Richard Garnett


My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets -- no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!

PHILIP ROTH

Portnoy's Complaint

Tags: Philip Roth


Words are powerful, especially when they become actions.

PETE WILSON

"Words are powerful, especially when they become actions", Brazil Times, March 5, 2017


The way that words mutate reminds me of fashions in music. The word--the note--is a constant. But the setting and chord in which it occurs alters with the mood of a nation from major to minor, from the assertive to the mournful and foreboding.

NEAL ASCHERSON

"Chords of Identity in a Minor Key", Games with Shadows

Tags: Neal Ascherson


Words in the head are like voices underwater. They are distorted.

JEANETTE WINTERSON

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Tags: Jeanette Winterson


Words are but the bannerets of a great army, a few bits of waving color here and there; thoughts are the main body of the footman that march unseen below.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

Tags: Henry Ward Beecher


No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

HENRY ADAMS

The Education of Henry Adams

Tags: Henry Adams


Words carry weight and have impact. Our generation's vocabulary is a significant part of our culture, and everyone contributes. Words have history and baggage that are too often ignored. Meanings of words change, often incredibly slowly, so using a word now can mean that you are implicitly using all of its past meanings. Using that word can take you back to its origin and render you a contributor to the degradation it was meant to cause.

GRACE JOHNSON

"Words and their weight", The Brown Daily Herald, January 27, 2016


Words are in this respect like water, that they often take their taste, flavour, and character, from the mouth out of which they proceed, as the water from the channel through which it flows.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Lacon

Tags: Charles Caleb Colton


Words can only hurt you if you try to read them. Don't play their game!

BEN STILLER

Zoolander


The words we speak have such power, and we have the power to choose them wisely.

BARBARA WALSH

"Choosing our words wisely for encouragement", Deming Headlight, January 28, 2016