WORDS QUOTES XII

quotations about words

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

Tags: Edward Hirsch


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


The clear and simple words of common usage are always better than those of erudition. The jargon of the philosophers not seldom conceals an absence of thought.

ANDRÉ MAUROIS

The Art of Writing

Tags: André Maurois


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


Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.

VOLTAIRE

Dialogue

Tags: Voltaire


All words are pegs to hang ideas on.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


The right word is always a power, and communicates its definiteness to our action.

GEORGE ELIOT

Middlemarch


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


I like good strong words that mean something.

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

Little Women

Tags: Louisa May Alcott


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


What a children's earliest words are also depends on the age at which they start talking -- a late talker who is already mobile will learn words for the toys and objects that they find around them, while early talkers may learn more conversational words, for example hello, bye bye, or thank you.

ELENA LIEVEN & CAROLINE ROWLAND

"Should children understand at least 25 words by the time they are 2-years-old?", The Independent, January 14, 2016


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


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


I watch my words from a long way off.
They are more yours than mine.
They climb on my old suffering like ivy.

PABLO NERUDA

"So That You Will Hear Me"

Tags: Pablo Neruda


And the words slide into the slots ordained by syntax, and glitter as with atmospheric dust with those impurities which we call meaning.

ANTHONY BURGESS

Enderby Outside


Talking always gets in the way of a good honest conversation.

GREG VOVOS

The Blogger

Tags: Greg Vovos


Oaths are but words, and words but wind.

SAMUEL BUTLER

Hudibras

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The written word has this advantage, that it lasts and can await the time when it is allowed to take effect.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe

Tags: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Of course, not everything is unsayable in words, only the living truth.

EUGENE IONESCO

Fragments of a Journal

Tags: Eugene Ionesco


Words form the thread on which we string our experiences.

ALDOUS HUXLEY

The Olive Tree