WORDS QUOTES IV

quotations about words

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

K. J. PARKER

Evil for Evil


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


Words frequently surrender power to the opposer.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


Words carried weight, some more than others, and it seemed to him that once you'd arranged them into phrases they stayed that way like bricks you'd laid in a wall and went on meaning what they said no matter what happened.

WILLIAM GAY

Provinces of Night

Tags: William Gay


Words can only hurt you if you try to read them. Don't play their game!

BEN STILLER

Zoolander


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


Words are so last year.

BEANO

Twitter post, March 31, 2017


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


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

GOETHE

Faust

Tags: Goethe


Words are but the bannerets of a great army, a few bits of waving color here and there; thoughts are the main body of the footman that march unseen below.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

Tags: Henry Ward Beecher


Words are acoustical signs for concepts; concepts, however, are more or less definite image signs for often recurring and associated sensations, for groups of sensations. To understand one another, it is not enough that one use the same words; one also has to use the same words for the same species of inner experiences; in the end one has to have one's experiences in common.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Beyond Good and Evil


Words are a pretty fuzzy substitute for mathematical equations.

ISAAC ASIMOV

Foundation and Empire

Tags: Isaac Asimov


What so wild as words are?

ROBERT BROWNING

A Woman's Last Word

Tags: Robert Browning


Through words we come to know the other person--and to be known. This knowing is at the heart of our deepest longings for intimacy and connection with others. How relationships unfold with the most important people in our lives depends on courage and clarity in finding voice.

HARRIET LERNER

The Dance of Connection

Tags: Harriet Lerner


There are times when people aren't able to acknowledge or interpret an action but words are definite.

ANGIE JURGENS

"The power of words, through the eyes of a writer", Journal Star, January 30, 2016


The words of God are deeds.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


The way that words mutate reminds me of fashions in music. The word--the note--is a constant. But the setting and chord in which it occurs alters with the mood of a nation from major to minor, from the assertive to the mournful and foreboding.

NEAL ASCHERSON

"Chords of Identity in a Minor Key", Games with Shadows

Tags: Neal Ascherson


The beautiful word begets the beautiful deed.

THOMAS MANN

The Magic Mountain

Tags: Thomas Mann


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


Of what use are good words to an evil heart?

LOUIS BECKE

"Solepa", By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore and Other Stories

Tags: Louis Becke