WORDS QUOTES III

quotations about words


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One cannot be too careful with words, they change their minds just as people do.

JOSÉ SARAMAGO
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Death with Interruptions


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Tags: José Saramago


When we think, our thoughts are in the form of words, so authorities must never be permitted to outlaw or edit our thinking by redefining or outlawing our words.

JONATHAN HOFFMAN

"Words are thoughts; protect them", Arizona Daily Star, March 11, 2017


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

JOHN THORNTON

Maxims and Directions for Youth

Tags: John Thornton


As long as words a different sense will bear,
And each may be his own interpreter,
Our airy faith will no foundation find;
The word's a weathercock for every wind.

JOHN DRYDEN

The Hind and the Panther

Tags: John Dryden


What lives in words is what words were needed to learn.

JANE HIRSHFIELD

"To Speech"

Tags: Jane Hirshfield


Words are a pretty fuzzy substitute for mathematical equations.

ISAAC ASIMOV

Foundation and Empire

Tags: Isaac Asimov


The proof of battle is action, proof of words, debate.

HOMER

The Iliad

Tags: Homer


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


Behind every word a whole world is hidden that must be imagined. Actually, every word has a great burden of memories, not only just of one person but of all mankind. Take a word such as bread, or war; take a word such as chair, or bed or Heaven. Behind every word is a whole world. I'm afraid that most people use words as something to throw away without sensing the burden that lies in a word.

HEINRICH BÖLL

The Paris Review, spring 1983

Tags: Heinrich Böll


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


If we use common words on a great occasion, they are the more striking, because they are felt at once to have a particular meaning, like old banners, or everyday clothes, hung up in a sacred place.

GEORGE ELIOT

The Mill on the Floss

Tags: George Eliot


A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream.

GASTON BACHELARD

The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos

Tags: Gaston Bachelard


It is the stillest words that bring the storm.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Thus Spoke Zarathustra


Words are acoustical signs for concepts; concepts, however, are more or less definite image signs for often recurring and associated sensations, for groups of sensations. To understand one another, it is not enough that one use the same words; one also has to use the same words for the same species of inner experiences; in the end one has to have one's experiences in common.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Beyond Good and Evil


Written words as well as spoken words are not always taken the way they are meant to be taken, so never hesitate to ask, "I am not sure what you mean by that?" Facial expressions and tone of voice play a large role in our understanding, but communication is the key to living in harmony with others.

ELIZABETH SCHADRACK

"Valley Voice: Common sense moves can ease societal woes", The Desert Sun, February 10, 2016


Words have not the color of the rose
Nor the beauty of the morn!

EDWIN CURRAN

"The Depths of Love"


Words which enlighten some darken others.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


Words are not necessary to one's experience of the true life.

DON DELILLO

Point Omega


Contrary to what some people have tried to imply, the meaning of a word can be, to a great extent, a subjective experience. After all, words are really just ideas. Those ideas are layered in experiences unique to each individual's perspective. That means that we may not be using our terms in the same exact manner as we might think others are. If that isn't bad enough, those unique ideas might, or might not be rooted in fact. These things should force us to reflect on the thought that perhaps even the few words we do use are not as well defined or universal as some would have us believe.

DAVID BUCIENSKI

"How much do words really matter?", Southgate News Herald, March 9, 2017


Last words are only words.

CORMAC MCCARTHY

Suttree

Tags: Cormac McCarthy