WORDS QUOTES V

quotations about words

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

GOETHE

Faust

Tags: Goethe


What so wild as words are?

ROBERT BROWNING

A Woman's Last Word

Tags: Robert Browning


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


Written, spoken or read I've always been amazed how one or two words could encourage someone to keep going. Or a devastating sentence could painfully break a person's heart. Even a simple written phrase could change someone's life forever.

HEIDI ALLEN

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


The words we speak have such power, and we have the power to choose them wisely.

BARBARA WALSH

"Choosing our words wisely for encouragement", Deming Headlight, January 28, 2016


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


Not content with the million or so words they already have at their disposal, English speakers are adding new ones at the rate of around 1,000 a year. Recent dictionary debutants include blog, grok, crowdfunding, hackathon, airball, e-marketing, sudoku, twerk and Brexit.

ANDY BODLE

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


Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.

MAYA ANGELOU

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Tags: Maya Angelou


No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

HENRY ADAMS

The Education of Henry Adams

Tags: Henry Adams


There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.

THOMAS REID

Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

Tags: Thomas Reid


It feels like spoken words, this bridge. I want it but fear it. God, I want so desperately to reach the other side -- just like I want the words. I want my words to build bridges strong enough to walk on. I want them to tower over the world so I can stand up on them and walk to the other side.

MARKUS ZUSAK

Getting the Girl

Tags: Markus Zusak


As the bud a leaf, so at last the thought becomes a word.

RICHARD GARNETT

De Flagello Myrtes

Tags: Richard Garnett


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

K. J. PARKER

Evil for Evil


Prowling the meanings of a word, prowling the history of a person, no use expecting a flood of light. Human words have no main switch. But all those little kidnaps in the dark. And then the luminous, big, shivering, discandied, unrepentant, barking web of them that hangs in your mind when you turn back to the page you were trying to translate...

ANNE CARSON

Nox

Tags: Anne Carson


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 am increasingly afflicted by vertigo where words mean nothing.

DORIS LESSING

The Golden Notebook


Words don't tell you what people are thinking. Rarely do we use words to really tell. We use words to sell people or to convince people or to make them admire us. It's all disguise. It's all hidden -- a secret language.

ROBERT ALTMAN

Esquire, March 2004

Tags: Robert Altman


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

JEANETTE WINTERSON

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Tags: Jeanette Winterson


Words can carry any burden we wish. All that's required is agreement and a tradition upon which to build.

FRANK HERBERT

God Emperor of Dune


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

YEVGENY ZAMYATIN

We

Tags: Yevgeny Zamyatin