WORDS QUOTES IV

quotations about words

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"

Tags: Maggie Butt


Words are mere sound and smoke, dimming the heavenly light.

GOETHE

Faust

Tags: Goethe


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

DON DELILLO

Point Omega


Words are the only bullets in truth's bandolier. And poets are the snipers.

DAN SIMMONS

Hyperion

Tags: Dan Simmons


Words come in many varieties. They show actions and feelings; they demonstrate obtuse or abstract ideas or they express concrete notions. Often we divide words into simple words, everyday language, and complicated or complex words, and words that should express subtleties. Often we use words not to be clear but to obfuscate our intentions and hide our real meanings. These are the words that at first sound wonderful but upon examining, we come to realize that they are veils hiding truth and vehicles of confusion.

PETER TARLOW

"What words can really mean in life", The Eagle, February 6, 2016


Words frequently surrender power to the opposer.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


Words in the head are like voices underwater. They are distorted.

JEANETTE WINTERSON

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Tags: Jeanette Winterson


Words [are] more beautiful than a found fall leaf.

WILLIAM H. GASS

A Temple of Texts

Tags: William H. Gass


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


You can attach connotations or anything you want to a word, but, at the end of the day, it still means the same thing.

RUTH MWANGOMO

"Words' gray area: Reappropriation", The Shorthorn, March 29, 2017


You must assume that your words are going to be repeated, misunderstood, or exaggerated by the person you "shared" with.

DREXEL GILBERT

"The top 5 words you should never say at work", New York Daily News, March 5, 2017


A good word costs as little as a bad one, and is worth more.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms

Tags: Benjamin Whichcote


After all is said and done, more is said than done.

AESOP

Aesop's Fables

Tags: Aesop


All of life in its complexity and beauty is forever minted in the gold of words.

YEVGENY ZAMYATIN

We

Tags: Yevgeny Zamyatin


Avoid, which many grave men have not done, words taken from sacred subjects and from elevated poetry: these we have seen vilely prostituted. Avoid too the society of the barbarians who misemploy them.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR

"Barrow and Newton", Dialogues of Literary Men

Tags: Walter Savage Landor


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

Tags: Laura Esquivel


I am spoken to not in words, which come to me quaint and veiled, but in signs, in conformations of face and hands, in postures of shoulders and feet, in nuances of tune and tone, in gaps and absences whose grammar has never been recorded.

J. M. COETZEE

In the Heart of the Country


I love and reverence the Word, the bearer of the spirit, the tool and gleaming ploughshare of progress.

THOMAS MANN

The Magic Mountain


Leave words to them whom words, not doings, move.

ARTHUR SYMONS

"Variations Upon Love"

Tags: Arthur Symons


Make friends with words. You can't give words a pat on the back, nor can you shake hands with words. But like an old friend, words can fill you with a nostalgia that's indescribably sweet.

SHUJI TERAYAMA

attributed, "VOX POPULI: Words are like friends that bring comfort and meaning to life", Vox Populi, January 27, 2016