WORDS QUOTES XIII

quotations about words

The proof of words are sometimes the effect of them on others; words are not proofs without effect.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


The act of saying that things exist that cannot be described in words shakes a universe where words are the supreme belief.

FRANK HERBERT

Heretics of Dune


Words never can express the whole that we feel: they give but an outline.

ELIZA COOK

Diamond Dust

Tags: Eliza Cook


Words are not the end of thought, they are where it begins.

JANE HIRSHFIELD

"After Long Silence"

Tags: Jane Hirshfield


The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words.

URSULA K. LE GUIN

introduction, The Left Hand of Darkness

Tags: Ursula K. Le Guin


You take many words to say simple things.

LILLIAN HELLMAN

The Autumn Garden

Tags: Lillian Hellman


The words fell as the axe of a skillful woodman falls at the root of a young tree and brings it down at a single blow.

HONORÉ DE BALZAC

Seraphita

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Too many words cheapened the value of a man's speech.

PATRICIA BRIGGS

Raven's Shadow

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All words are pegs to hang ideas on.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


We allow words to obscure the interpretation of the deeper meaning.

STEPHEN YOUNG

preface, Micro Messaging: Why Great Leadership is Beyond Words

Tags: Stephen Young


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

Tags: Julius Charles Hare


A word is nothing unless it has values and an atmosphere, unless you grasp its historical significance.

STEFAN ZWEIG

Confusion of Feelings or Confusion

Tags: Stefan Zweig


Words are naught but wind, and the fairest promises like dreams that take flight with the morning.

ÉDOUARD RENÉ DE LABOULAYE

Abdallah

Tags: Édouard René de Laboulaye


A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt.

MARK TWAIN

"Essay on William Dean Howells"

Tags: Mark Twain


Written words differ from spoken words in being material structures. A spoken word is a process in the physical world, having an essential time-order; a written word is a series of pieces of matter, having an essential space-order.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

Philosophy

Tags: Bertrand Russell


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

Tags: Herbert Spencer


You can stroke people with words.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

Notebooks

Tags: F. Scott Fitzgerald


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

Tags: Sarah Doudney


Into the vortex of this sea of messaging comes not an afterthought but very possibly the cause, the universal values that are necessary for a world tied together by what? By words. Words are not dying now, merely moving forward. Books are not dying. "In the beginning was the word" suggests that very foundation of reality begins with how we see and express it.

STEPHEN C. ROSE

"Cybercommunities will require a revolution based on messaging", Blasting News, April 3, 2017


Superfluous words simply spill out when the mind is already full.

HORACE

Ars Poetica

Tags: Horace