“Words are more powerful than perhaps anyone suspects, and once deeply engraved in a child's mind, they are not easily eradicated.”

—  May Sarton

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Words are more powerful than perhaps anyone suspects, and once deeply engraved in a child's mind, they are not easily e…" by May Sarton?
May Sarton photo
May Sarton 26
American poet, novelist, and memoirist 1912–1995

Related quotes

Jonathan Edwards photo

“Godliness is more easily feigned in words than in actions”

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) Christian preacher, philosopher, and theologian

Source: The Religious Affections

Alexander Woollcott photo

“At 83 Shaw's mind was perhaps not quite as good as it used to be, but it was still better than anyone else's.”

Alexander Woollcott (1887–1943) American critic

Referring to George Bernard Shaw in While Rome Burns (1934).

Hermann Hesse photo

“For although in a certain sense and for light-minded persons non-existent things can be more easily and irresponsibly represented in words than existing things, for the serious and conscientious historian it is just the reverse.”

Hermann Hesse book The Glass Bead Game

Motto of the work written by Hesse, and attributed to an "Albertus Secundus"
The Glass Bead Game (1943)
Context: For although in a certain sense and for light-minded persons non-existent things can be more easily and irresponsibly represented in words than existing things, for the serious and conscientious historian it is just the reverse. Nothing is harder, yet nothing is more necessary, than to speak of certain things whose existence is neither demonstrable nor probable. The very fact that serious and conscientious men treat them as existing things brings them a step closer to existence and to the possibility of being born.

John Clare photo

“Superstition lives longer than books, it is engraved on the human mind 'til it becomes a part of its existence.”

John Clare (1793–1864) English poet

Popularity of Authorship (1824)

H.L. Mencken photo

“I have often argued that a poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child. I begin to suspect that there may be some truth in it.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

13
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)

Jennifer Donnelly photo

“But words are more powerful than anything.”

Jennifer Donnelly A Northern Light

Source: A Northern Light

Michael Rosen photo

“Anyone who was once a child should have at least one children's book in them.”

Michael Rosen (1946) British children's writer

Macca the paperback writer, Guardian, (22 March 2005) http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1443374,00.html

George W. Bush photo

“I suspected there would be a good-size crowd once the word got out about my hanging.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

At the National Portrait Gallery unveiling of his portrait (19 December 2008), quoted in David Byers, " President Bush attends his own hanging http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article1998914.ece", The Times (December 19, 2008); Christine Lagorio, " A Public Hanging (Of Sorts) For The Bush Family http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-public-hanging-of-sorts-for-the-bush-family/", CBS News (December 19, 2008).
2000s, 2008

Socrates photo

“and as they, when they have once mastered them, are easily able to manage all others; so I, after managing Xanthippe, can easily live with anyone else whatever.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

Diogenes Laertius

“Listen! There will be no more offerings, neither child nor parent. There will be no more sacrifices for anyone other than our fellow human. The time of obedience and atonement is past.”

Dan Simmons book Hyperion

Source: Hyperion (1989), Chapter 4 (p. 308)

Related topics