- Although they are
- only breath, words
- which I command
- are immortal
Something unfathomable lies behind every thought ... something for which there aren't any words.
PETER WEISS, The Tower
Desires and words go hand in hand ... they are moved by the same intention to join together, to communicate, to establish bridges between people, whether they are spoken or written.
LAURA ESQUIVEL, Swift as Desire
The poet cannot invent new words every time, of course. He uses the words of the tribe. But the handling of the word, the accent, a new articulation, renew them.
EUGENE IONESCO, Present Past / Past Present
Oaths are but words, and words but wind.
What so wild as words are?
ROBERT BROWNING, A Woman's Last Word
Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.
MARK TWAIN, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.
GEORGE ORWELL, The Lion and the Unicorn
- Words are like butter
- Rolling off my lips
- Cut like a knife
- And now I'm sinking battleships
Words are mere sound and smoke, dimming the heavenly light.
The views of men can only be known, or guessed at, by their words or actions.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Patrick Henry, Jan. 15, 1799
Articulate words are a harsh clamor and dissonance. When man arrives at his highest perfection, he will again be dumb! for I suppose he was dumb at the Creation, and must go round an entire circle in order to return to that blessed state.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, American Note-Books, Apr. 1841
Words travel as swiftly as desire, so it is possible to send a message of love without them.
LAURA ESQUIVEL, Swift as Desire
How truly language must be regarded as a hindrance to thought, though the necessary instrument of it, we shall clearly perceive on remembering the comparative force with which simple ideas are communicated by signs. To say, "Leave the room," is less expressive than to point to the door. Place a finger on the lips is more forcible than whispering, "Do not speak." A beck of the hand is better than, "Come here." No phrase can convey the idea of surprise so vividly as opening the eyes and raising the eyebrows. A shrug of the shoulders would lose much by translation into words.
HERBERT SPENCER, The Philosophy of Style
You take many words to say simple things.
LILLIAN HELLMAN, The Autumn Garden
- Such simple words! But words are mighty things;
- They cast us down, or lift us up to rest;
- They charm and strengthen, till our angel sings
- The last of all the life-songs, and the best.
SARAH DOUDNEY, Some Words
No man weighs his words who has but a moment to live.
PHILIP MOELLER, Helena's Husband
Of what use are good words to an evil heart?
LOUIS BECKE, "Solepa," By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore and Other Stories
Words once spoke can never be recall'd.
WENTWORTH DILLON, Art of Poetry
- Language is an impure medium. Speech is public property and words are the soiled products, not of nature, but of society, which circulates and uses them for a thousand different ends.
EDWARD HIRSCH, How to Read a Poem
Words have a magical power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or deepest despair; they can transfer knowledge from teacher to student; words enable the orator to sway his audience and dictate its decisions. Words are capable of arousing the strongest emotions and prompting all men's actions.
SIGMUND FREUD, The Educator's Book of Quotes
What a pity it is that there are so many words! Whenever one wants to say anything, three or four ways of saying it run into one's head together; and one can't tell which to choose. It is as troublesome and puzzling as choosing a ribbon ... or a husband.
JULIUS CHARLES HARE, Guesses at Truth
- Words are very unnecessary
- They can only do harm
DEPECHE MODE, "Enjoy the Silence"
When you doubt between two words, choose the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic. Eschew fine words as you would rouge: love simple ones, as you would native roses on your cheeks.
JULIUS CHARLES HARE, Guesses at Truth
- Words are soldiers of fortune
- Hired by different ideas.
MAXWELL BODENHEIM, "Impulsive Dialogue"
Above all, beware of platitudes, i.e., word combinations that have already appeared a thousand times.... As a general rule, try to find new combinations of words (not for the sake of their novelty, but because every person sees things in an individual way and must find his own words for them).
VLADIMIR NABOKOV, letter to Kirill Nabokov, c. 1930
Always having to have the last word is a bad trait. Pisses people off.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON, The Lunatic Cafe
Leave words to them whom words, not doings, move.
ARTHUR SYMONS, "Variations Upon Love"
Words betrayed her: beautiful butterflies in her mind; dead moths when she opened her mouth for their release into the world.
Talking always gets in the way of a good honest conversation.
- 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"
It's tremendously hard work. Yes, I love arranging the words and having them fall on the ear the right way and you know you're not quite there and you're redoing it and redoing it and there's a wonderful thrill to it. But it is hard.
ELIZABETH STROUT, Newsweek, Jul. 13, 2009
Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.
Words are the only bullets in truth's bandolier. And poets are the snipers.
Sometimes you want to say things, and you're missing an idea to make them with, and missing a word to make the idea with. In the beginning was the word. That's how somebody tried to explain it once. Until something is named, it doesn't exist.
SAMUEL R. DELANY, Babel-17
In silence you can't hide anything ... as you can in words.
