“For a writer, to change languages is to write a love letter with a dictionary.”
Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist
Anathemas and Admirations (1987)
“Actually if a writer needs a dictionary he should not write. He should have read the dictionary at least three times from beginning to end and then have loaned it to someone who needs it. There are only certain words which are valid and similies (bring me my dictionary) are like defective ammunition”
the lowest thing I can think of at this time
Letter (20 March 1953); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker
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Ernest Hemingway501
American author and journalist 1899–1961Related quotes
“LEXICOGRAPHER — A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.”
Samuel Johnson book A Dictionary of the English Language
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
Francesco Maria Zanotti (1692–1777) Italian philosopher
Una parola o forma di dire non è buona perchè è nel Vocabulario, ma è nel Vocabulario perchè era buona anche prima di esservi.
XIX.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 434.
Paradossi
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (1879–1973) Tamil politician and social reformer
In the Collected Works of Periyar E.V.R., p. 490.
Society
Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher
Letter to Mrs. Blumberg (27 September 1977)
Context: There is not an idea that cannot be expressed in 200 words. But the writer must know precisely what he wants to say. If you have nothing to say and want badly to say it, then all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice.