As you may know, I’m rather partial to words.
I enjoy reading them, writing them, playing with them, learning about their origin and discovering new ones.
So, seeing as I’ve already written a blog post with my favourite quotes about writing, it seems only right to also do one on quotations about words – both of the spoken and written variety.
Quotes about words seem to fall into several groupings:
The power of words
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” ~ Rudyard Kipling
“Words are loaded pistols.” ~ Jean-Paul Sartre
“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” ~ Robin Williams
“Words cast spells. That’s why it’s called spelling. Words are energy; use them wisely.” ~ anon
There’s no going back
“We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.” ~ Winston Churchill
“Be sure to taste your words before you spit them out.” ~ anon
“Four things you can’t recover: the stone after the throw, the word after it’s said, the occasion after it’s missed, the time after it’s gone.” ~ Deanna Wadsworth
Choose your words carefully
“Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.” ~ Stephen King
“Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” ~ C.S. Lewis
“The words of the tongue should have three gatekeepers: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” ~ Arabian proverb
“If you wouldn’t write it and sign it, don’t say it.” ~ Earl Wilson
Silence is golden
“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” ~ Mark Twain
“Silence is better than unmeaning words.” ~ Pythagoras
“When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.” ~ William Shakespeare
The truth hurts
“Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.” ~ Lao Tzu
These only represent the tip of the iceberg as there are lots more well-known quotes about words. Any you would care to add?
(image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
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