A Joy for Ever, note 6 (1857).
Context: For certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them.
Quotes about word
page 27
“His heart is too full, and no words to release it.”
Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Attributed to Adams in: AB bookman's weekly: for the specialist book world. (1985) Vol 76, Nr. 19-27; p. 3326
“One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word.”
“There is nothing more valuable than the printed word.”
“I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life.”
Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 56, p. 178
“Dream and love are just words - until you decide to experience them”
“… falling in love could be achieved in a single word—a glance.”
Source: Atonement
Letter to a friend, quoted in The Life of Florence Nightingale (1913) by Edward Tyas Cook, p. 94
“The animals have no need for speech, why talk when you are a word.”
Source: Surfacing
Source: His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass
Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter One
Context: This is not a book. This is libel, slander, defamation of character. This is not a book, in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will.
Source: Jealousy
Quoted by Lord Normanbrook in Action This Day: Working With Churchill. Memoirs by Lord Norman Brook (And Others) http://books.google.com/books?id=qxchAAAAMAAJ&q=%22in+the+course+of+my+life+I+have+often+had+to+eat+my+words+and+I+must+confess+that+I+have+always+found+it+a+wholesome+diet%22&pg=PA28#v=onepage (1968)
Often misquoted as: Eating my words has never given me indigestion. http://books.google.com/books?id=vbsU21fEhLAC&q=%22Eating+my+words+has+never+given+me+indigestion%22&pg=PA486#v=onepage.
Post-war years (1945–1955)
“That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”
Source: The God of Small Things
“When I can make
Of ten small words a rope to hang the world!
"I had you and I have you now no more.”
Source: Renascence and Other Poems
Source: Magic Breaks
“Many a law, many a commandment have I broken, but my word never.”
Source: Alice in Zombieland
Source: Word After Word After Word
"Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution", sermon at the National Cathedral, 31 March 1968, published in A Testament of Hope (1986)
1960s
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
“hate has no literature: real fear and real hate have no words”
Source: Shantaram
“Those words, that voice, had more power over me than any phantom ever could.”
Source: The Ruby Circle
“You see how I try
To reach with words
What matters most
And how I fail.”
“Why are you so sad?
- Because you speak to me in words and I look at you with feelings.”
“Sookie," Eric said. I didn't think he'd heard a word. "Yield to me."
Well, that was pretty direct.”
Source: Living Dead in Dallas
“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”
"Webster's Electronic Quotebase," ed. Keith Mohler, 1994
“This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.”
28 April 1778, p. 659 http://books.google.com/books?id=yYphdZ0abhUC&q="One+of+the+disadvantages+of+wine+it+makes+a+man+mistake+words+for+thoughts"&pg=PA659#v=onepage
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 2
Source: A Straight Line to My Heart
Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Music does not replace words, it gives tone to the words”
“the enduring struggle to capture in words the infinite possibilities of a life not lived.”
Source: The Last Time They Met
Source: Shōgun
“There are more experiences in life than you’d think for which there are no words.”
“Then he left her there, standing alone, surrounded by word ghosts; things she could have said.”
Source: Firefly Lane
Source: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
“There aren't any magical words, really. Words just hold the magic.”
Source: Grave Peril
“Words are just words. The evidence is in how you act, how you react.”
Source: Fever
“love, I've come to understand is more than three words mumbled before bedtime.”
“the words people do not speak are louder than the ones they do.”
Source: The First Phone Call from Heaven