WORDS QUOTES X

quotations about words

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

Tags: Samuel R. Delany


All our words from loose using have lost their edge.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Death in the Afternoon

Tags: Ernest Hemingway


Has the world ever been changed by anything save the thought and its magic vehicle the Word?

THOMAS MANN

Freud and the Future

Tags: Thomas Mann


Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.

ELIE WIESEL

attributed, The Little Book of Romanian Wisdom

Tags: Elie Wiesel


Everyday your words are revealing what is in your heart. Think of it as "Soulchat."

DAN DELZELL

"Your Words Reveal Your Heart", Christian Post, April 1, 2017


If our words are kept under control, it shows that we have a lot of other things where they should be.

R. D. HOTTLE

"Anchor On ... Great Words of Life", Highland County Press, April 1, 2017


The pressed oil of words can blaze up into music, into image, into the heart and mind's knowledge. The lit and shadowed places within us can be warmed.

JANE HIRSHFIELD

Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

Tags: Jane Hirshfield


"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." The adage is true as long as you don't really believe the words. But if your whole upbringing, and everything you have ever been told by parents, teachers and priests, has led you to believe, really believe, utterly and completely, that sinners burn in hell (or some other obnoxious article of doctrine such as that a woman is the property of her husband), it is entirely plausible that words could have a more long-lasting and damaging effect than deeds.

RICHARD DAWKINS

The God Delusion

Tags: Richard Dawkins


There are, indeed, things that cannot be put into words. They make themselves manifest. They are what is mystical.

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

Tractacus Logico-Philosophicus


Shakespeare is often held up as a master neologist, because at least 500 words (including critic, swagger, lonely and hint) first appear in his works -- but we have no way of knowing whether he personally invented them or was just transcribing things he'd picked up elsewhere.

ANDY BODLE

"How new words are born", The Guardian, February 4, 2016


Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

DEPECHE MODE

"Enjoy the Silence"

Tags: Depeche Mode


All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

letter, April 9, 1945

Tags: Ernest Hemingway


Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly -- they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced.

ALDOUS HUXLEY

Brave New World

Tags: Aldous Huxley


Throughout the years my writing has taken on many styles. Whether it was to discover myself, de-clutter my mind, get over heartache or decipher the lessons I was supposed to learn. Good or bad, words have always been there for me.

HEIDI ALLEN

"Words Are Powerful -- My Journey With Words", Huffington Post, March 14, 2017


A new word is like a fresh seed sown on the ground of the discussion.

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

Culture and Value

Tags: Ludwig Wittgenstein


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


Words are coded and loaded with underlying meanings until they're too heavy to use in casual conversation.

ISABEL DRUKKER

"Sticks and stones", Campus Times, April 2, 2017


Words are such gross machinery, so primitive and ambiguous.

FRANK HERBERT

Dune Messiah

Tags: Frank Herbert


A definition is nothing else but an explication of the meaning of a word, by words whose meaning is already known. Hence it is evident that every word cannot be defined; for the definition must consist of words; and there could be no definition, if there were not words previously understood without definition.

THOMAS REID

Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man


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

attributed, The Educator's Book of Quotes

Tags: Sigmund Freud