“The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.”
Source: Lords and Ladies
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Terry Pratchett796
English author 1948–2015Related quotes
“Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes;
And yet I pity those they torture not.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley Prometheus Unbound
Prometheus, Act I, l. 632
Prometheus Unbound (1818–1819; publ. 1820)
“Everyone looks on me like a black snake.”
Ned Kelly (1855–1880) Australian bushranger
Babington Letter (1870)
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Other
“Words never mean what we want them to mean.”
Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated
Source: Everything Is Illuminated (2002)
Christopher Walken (1943) American actor
Shout Magazine, in the issue from August, in the article "Cookin' with Christopher Walken" (2001)
“Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.”
Zhuangzi (-369–-286 BC) classic Chinese philosopher
Variant: "Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to."
Context: A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find someone who's forgotten words so I can have a word with him?...