“Words without experience are meaningless.”
Source: Lolita
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Vladimir Nabokov 193
Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor 1899–1977Related quotes
“Until language has made sense of an experience, that experience is meaningless.”
Word Play (1974)
Context: Thinking is language spoken to oneself. Until language has made sense of an experience, that experience is meaningless.
1910s, The Progressives, Past and Present (1910)
Context: Our whole experiment is meaningless unless we are to make this a democracy in the fullest sense of the word, in the broadest as well as the highest and deepest significance of the word. It must be made a democracy economically, as well as politically. This does not mean that there shall not, be leadership in the economic as in the political world, or that there shall not be ample reward for high distinction and great service.
As of a Trumpet, 1968, p. 13
As of a Trumpet
“Just because life's meaningless doesn't mean we can't experience it meaningfully.”
Source: The Last Werewolf
Source: The Tin Flute (1945), P.275-276
“Kreeft calls the word "interesting": "that all-purpose meaningless euphemism."”
The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind the Lord of the Rings, Ignatius Press (2005), p. 9
“In silence the heart raves. It utters words
Meaningless, that never had
A meaning.”
"True Love"
Context: In silence the heart raves. It utters words
Meaningless, that never had
A meaning. I was ten, skinny, red-headed,
Freckled. In a big black Buick,
Driven by a big grown boy, with a necktie, she sat
In front of the drugstore, sipping something
Through a straw. There is nothing like
Beauty. It stops your heart. It
Thickens your blood. It stops your breath. It
Makes you feel dirty. You need a hot bath.
I leaned against a telephone pole, and watched.
I thought I would die if she saw me.
Source: The Courage to Be (1952), p. 177