“Never start a sentence with the words 'No offense.”

“It is impossible for the Court to foresee when a sentence begins how it will end, and, sometimes, mischief is done before we are sure that the sentence will conclude in an offensive manner.”

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (1732–1802) British Baron

“It was virtually impossible to think of a sentence that made a positive use of that dreadful word ‘enough’, let alone one that started raving about ‘nothing’.”

Edward St. Aubyn (1960) British writer

“As soon as we start putting our thoughts into words and sentences everything gets distorted, language is just no damn good—I use it because I have to, but I don’t put any trust in it. We never understand each other.”

Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) French painter and sculptor

“The first words of the inhabitats of Partgrad were offensive words.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev (1922–2006) Russian writer

“Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“The words you never cared to say, “I want to start a family””

Pete Yorn (1974) American musician

“The words of the world want to make sentences.”

Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French writer and philosopher

“Bobby Knight told me this: "There is nothing that a good defense—cannot beat a better offense." In other words a good offense wins.”

Dan Quayle (1947) American politician, lawyer

“I start in the middle of a sentence and move both directions at once.”

John Coltrane (1926–1967) American jazz saxophonist