WORDS QUOTES IV

quotations about words

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


No man weighs his words who has but a moment to live.

PHILIP MOELLER

Helena's Husband

Tags: Philip Moeller


Words are powerful. They have the ability to build someone up or tear him down. And that someone includes you too. The words you say to yourself can either motivate you toward your goals, seriously hinder or stall your progress, or prevent you from even starting on your journey.

RACHEL GRICE

"7 Words to Stop Saying Right Now", Yahoo Health, January 24, 2016


First words are critical. Just ask any novelist or screenplay writer.

RICK BROWN

"The first words you need to hear", Your Houston News, January 13, 2016


I believe words have power. Words can build up your self-esteem or words can puff up your pride. Words can deceive you into wrong thinking or words can guide you to safety. Words can move you to compassion. Words can even heal. Your own words can defeat you since our mental self-talk is the software directing our life.

RON WOOD

"Words are weapons", Meridian Star, January 23, 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


Words are never "only words"; they matter because they define the contours of what we can do.

SLAVOJ ZIZEK

First as Tragedy, Then as Farce

Tags: Slavoj Zizek


Flaubert's famous search for the "mot juste" was not a search for words that glow alone, but for words so precisely placed that in combination with other words, also precisely placed, they carve out a shape in space and time.

STANLEY FISH

How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One

Tags: Gustave Flaubert


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

WILLIAM H. GASS

A Temple of Texts

Tags: William H. Gass


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

YEVGENY ZAMYATIN

We

Tags: Yevgeny Zamyatin


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

AESOP

Aesop's Fables

Tags: Aesop


In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold;
Alike fantastic, if too new, or old:
Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

ALEXANDER POPE

An Essay on Criticism

Tags: Alexander Pope


By words the mind is winged.

ARISTOPHANES

The Birds

Tags: Aristophanes


Words are so last year.

BEANO

Twitter post, March 31, 2017


You know, without my telling you, how sometimes a word or name eludes you, and you seek it through running ghosts of shadow -- leaping at it, lying in wait for it to spring upon it, spreading faint snares for it of sense or sound: until, of a sudden, as if in a phantom forest, you hear it, see it flash among the branches, and scarcely knowing how, suddenly have it.

CONRAD AIKEN

The House of Dust

Tags: Conrad Aiken


Words were like objects, making the idea more solid -- less a poisonous gas and more a ... cube of crystallized thought.

DAN SIMMONS

Olympos

Tags: Dan Simmons


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


Words which enlighten some darken others.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


Words frequently surrender power to the opposer.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


Words are but the shining garments of Thought.

EDWIN LEIBFREED

"The Song of the Soul"

Tags: Edwin Leibfreed