WORDS QUOTES VII

quotations about words

It is the stillest words that bring the storm.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Thus Spoke Zarathustra


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 were too clumsy, sometimes; treacherous, too, always trying to twist around and mean something slightly different.

K. J. PARKER

Evil for Evil


I sit and say nothing for fear
My words will turn to stone
And though they are sincere,
They will become a prison of their own.

GARRISON KEILLOR

Pilgrims

Tags: Garrison Keillor


Broadly speaking, short words are best, and the old words, when short, are best of all.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

speech on receiving the London Times Literary Award, November 2, 1949

Tags: Winston Churchill


A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

EMILY DICKINSON

"A Word is Dead"

Tags: Emily Dickinson


Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

MARK TWAIN

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Tags: Mark Twain


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

GOETHE

Faust

Tags: Goethe


The empirical usability of the sacred ceremonial words makes both the speaker and listener believe in their corporeal presence.

THEODOR W. ADORNO

Jargon of Authenticity

Tags: Theodor W. Adorno


Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.

AESCHYLUS

Prometheus Bound

Tags: Aeschylus


Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Prometheus Unbound

Tags: Percy Bysshe Shelley


Theirs, too, is the word-coining genius, as if thought plunged into a sea of words and came up dripping.

VIRGINIA WOOLF

"Notes on an Elizabethan Play", The Common Reader


Words are the light and sound of our existence, the heat lightning by which the night is illuminated.

DAN SIMMONS

The Rise of Endymion


The same words
come from each mouth
differently.

JANE HIRSHFIELD

"Fifteen Pebbles"


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


Why is it that words like these seem dull and cold? Is it because there is no word tender enough to be your name?

JAMES JOYCE

"The Dead", Dubliners

Tags: James Joyce


Fair words never hurt the tongue.

GEORGE CHAPMAN

Eastward Ho

Tags: George Chapman


In the beginning was the Word. Then came the fucking word processor. Then came the thought processor. Then came the death of literature. And so it goes.

DAN SIMMONS

Hyperion


A word makes thy fortune sometimes.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims

Tags: Edward Counsel


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

JOHN THORNTON

Maxims and Directions for Youth

Tags: John Thornton