WORDS QUOTES VII

quotations about words

You can attach connotations or anything you want to a word, but, at the end of the day, it still means the same thing.

RUTH MWANGOMO

"Words' gray area: Reappropriation", The Shorthorn, March 29, 2017


I love and reverence the Word, the bearer of the spirit, the tool and gleaming ploughshare of progress.

THOMAS MANN

The Magic Mountain


Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Prometheus Unbound

Tags: Percy Bysshe Shelley


When I was a girl my mother said
I chattered like a magpie
even in my sleep, as if I knew one day
the words would all be stopped,
wine corked up in a bottle.

MAGGIE BUTT

"I am the Sphinx"

Tags: Maggie Butt


Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

MARK TWAIN

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Tags: Mark Twain


A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

EMILY DICKINSON

"A Word is Dead"

Tags: Emily Dickinson


One mild word ... will quench more heat than a bucket of water.

JOHN THORNTON

Maxims and Directions for Youth

Tags: John Thornton


The empirical usability of the sacred ceremonial words makes both the speaker and listener believe in their corporeal presence.

THEODOR W. ADORNO

Jargon of Authenticity

Tags: Theodor W. Adorno


Theirs, too, is the word-coining genius, as if thought plunged into a sea of words and came up dripping.

VIRGINIA WOOLF

"Notes on an Elizabethan Play", The Common Reader


Words are the light and sound of our existence, the heat lightning by which the night is illuminated.

DAN SIMMONS

The Rise of Endymion


I must make a choice every time I speak a sentence in English. I try to choose the happier way of saying things, so that my own words will not weigh me down like stones.

TAD WILLIAMS

Otherland: City of Golden Shadow

Tags: Tad Williams


I shall repeat a hundred times; we really ought to free ourselves from the seduction of words!

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Beyond Good and Evil

Tags: Friedrich Nietzsche


I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

November

Tags: Gustave Flaubert


In our world, words seem to flow in endless disharmony. Words are often misused in ways that do an injustice to truth. We are exposed to endless words in print, social media and everyday speaking that do not build a framework of goodness, honesty and truth. We experience words that alarm, serve people's own selfish needs, are untruthful, controlling, or seek to appeal in ways that do not speak the truth in love. When the power of self-interest replaces truth, we are headed in the direction of chaos.

LARRY ROREM

"Choosing our words truthfully", Juneau Empire, March 26, 2017


The beautiful word begets the beautiful deed.

THOMAS MANN

The Magic Mountain

Tags: Thomas Mann


Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

Philosophical Investigations

Tags: Ludwig Wittgenstein


With words, we can negotiate deals. With words, we can enter into the covenant of marriage. With words, we can declare war. Words reveal our intent and purpose.

RON WOOD

"Words are weapons", Meridian Star, January 23, 2016


Words are mere sound and smoke, dimming the heavenly light.

GOETHE

Faust

Tags: Goethe


Words were too clumsy, sometimes; treacherous, too, always trying to twist around and mean something slightly different.

K. J. PARKER

Evil for Evil


Avoid, which many grave men have not done, words taken from sacred subjects and from elevated poetry: these we have seen vilely prostituted. Avoid too the society of the barbarians who misemploy them.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR

"Barrow and Newton", Dialogues of Literary Men

Tags: Walter Savage Landor