Quotes about wording
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“You always have a choice. Don't ever imagine you don't. Whatever you do, it's a decision and you have to accept responsibility for it. That's when honor becomes more than empty words.”

Lynn Flewelling Stalking Darkness

Source: Stalking Darkness

Imagination, Decision

“He managed to convey indifference, contempt, and boredom in the one word.”

Charlaine Harris (1951) American writer

Indifference

“As exits go, that's a good one." It was pretty hard to have the last word with a vampire.”

Charlaine Harris book All Together Dead

Source: All Together Dead

“Words form the thread on which we string our experiences.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

“It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse." Page 316”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.
Source: Life of Pi

Life, Heart

“She's a writer. The kind of writer who wouldn't be published outside. She believes that when one deals with words, one deals with the mind.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Love, Good Morning

“There's one hole in every revolution, large or small. And it's one word long— PEOPLE. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.”

Warren Ellis (1968) English comics and fiction writer

Source: Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street

People, Idea

“Insane is such an ugly word, a voice in my head said. Think of it as obtaining a new look at reality.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

Thinking, Reality

“Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

World

“There is a line of poetry, a sentence in a fable, a word in an essay, by which my existence is justified; find that line, and immortality is assured.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Source: The Library at Night

“No, scratch the word "career." Careers are for people who wish to advance. I only want to survive, draw a paycheck.”

Emily Giffin Something Borrowed

Source: Something Borrowed

People, Drawing

“I can’t believe Sadie’s going to let me have the last word. Our experience together must’ve really taught her something. Ow, she just hit me. Never mind.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“Every tounge bit had another word to say.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

“Born
of Black
and White, Eaten
with worms,
I'm a Saint, a Sinner,
a Siren of the
Word, The Circle
knows me, the rest
just wanna trip on
Grace Juice, Baby
Showdown
at midnight”

Ted Dekker book Showdown

Source: Showdown

Baby

“In love there are two things - bodies and words.”

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) American author

Love, Romantic, Valentine's Day, For Wife

“Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

God, Tear

“At the entrance to the original tower, there is a stone into which Jung carved some words with his own hand: 'Cold or not, God is present.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

God

“Sex pleasure in woman, as I have said, is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Second Sex

Bk. 2, Pt.. 4, Ch. 3: Sexual Initiation. p. 396
The Second Sex (1949)

Pleasure, Sex

“Do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in few!”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

Wise

“Man's right to know, to learn, to inquire, to make bona fide errors, to investigate human emotions must, by all means, be safe, if the word FREEDOM should ever be more than an empty political slogan.”

Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) Austrian-American psychoanalyst

Response to FDA complaint (1954)
Context: Inquiry in the realm of Basic Natural Law is outside the judicial domain of this or ANY OTHER KIND OF SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION ANYWHERE ON THIS GLOBE, IN ANY LAND, NATION, OR REGION.
Man's right to know, to learn, to inquire, to make bona fide errors, to investigate human emotions must, by all means, be safe, if the word FREEDOM should ever be more than an empty political slogan.

Error, Freedom, Learning

“Some people never say the words ‘I love you’, for like a child they’re longing to be told.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Love, People

“Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools.”

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English philosopher, born 1588

Men, Money, Fools

“Because sometimes I live in a hurricane of words
and not one of them can save me.”

Naomi Shihab Nye (1952) American writer

Source: Words Under the Words: Selected Poems

“It's all very romantic," Gabriel said, and then frowned. "Or it would be, if my brother could get a word out without sounding like a choking frog. I fear he will not go down in history as one of the world's greatest wooers of women.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Women, World, Fear, History

“No blade can puncture the human heart like the well-chosen words of a spiteful son.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

Heart

“I'm bored with it all.

- Last Words”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

“But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

"Araby"
Dubliners (1914)

“I'll believe it if I see it" for dogs translates to "I'll believe it if I smell it." So don't bother yelling at them; it's the energy and scent they pay attention to, not your words.”

Cesar Millan (1969) Mexican - American dog trainer and television personality

Dogs

“Words: with them you can do and undo as you please.”

Elena Ferrante book The Story of a New Name

Source: The Story of a New Name

“The orange flames waved at the crowd as paper and print dissolved inside them. Burning words were torn from their sentences.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“I learned to love the feel of good words.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Love, Feeling, Learning

“It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English - up to fifty words used in correct context - no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Learning

“Sassenach." He had called me that from the first; the Gaelic word for outlander, a stranger. An Englishman. First in jest, then in affection.”

Diana Gabaldon book Dragonfly in Amber

Source: Dragonfly in Amber

“This won't look so good in my obituary," Schaffer said dolefully. There was a perceptible edge of strain under the lightly-spoken words."Gave his life for his country in a ladies' lavatory in Upper Bavaria.”

Alistair MacLean book Where Eagles Dare

Source: Where Eagles Dare

Life, Country

“In her eyes and in her touch I felt the echoes of my words.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

“To be good, and to do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

Letter to Elizabeth Shaw (1784), quoted in John Adams (2001) by David McCullough, p. 310

“And once we reach the city, my stylist will dictate my look for the opening ceremonies tonight anyway. I just hope I get one who doesn't think nudity is the last word in fashion.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Hope, Fashion, Thinking

“Good words," I replied. "But deeds must prove it also; and after he is well, remember you don't forget resolutions formed in the hour of fear.”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Source: Wuthering Heights

Fear, Forgetting

“Words have always swirled around me like snowflakes-each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands.”

Sharon M. Draper book Out of My Mind

Source: Out of My Mind

“When you say too much about anything important, it always ends up sounding more trivial than it is. Words trash it.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Sloppy Firsts

“sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will make me cry by myself in a corner for hours.”

Eric Idle (1943) British comedian, actor, singer and writer

Cry

“She could not explain in so many words, but she felt that those who prepare for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy.”

E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist

Source: Howard's End

Life, Joy

“Oh my God," he said. "A kind word from Rose Hathaway. I can die a happy man.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

God, Happiness

“Yes, I read. I have that absurd habit. I like beautiful poems, moving poetry, and all theof that poetry. I am extraordinarily sensitive to those poor, marvelous words left in our dark night by a few men I never knew.”

Louis Aragon (1897–1982) French poet, novelist and editor

Source: Treatise on Style

Men, Beauty, Reading, Night

“I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.”

John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet

Apology for Smectymnuus (1642)

Silence, Suffering, Falseness

“Or. I hate that word. It’s two letters long and stuffed to the gills with reasonable doubt.”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

Hate

“There's no such thing as civilization. The word just means the art of living in cities.”

Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American speculative fiction writer

Source: The Great Book of Amber

Art

“[I'm]a freak user of words, not a poet.”

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Welsh poet and writer

“It's [the word “sorry”] the most infuriating word in the English language. Just a cheap way to behave badly then shelve responsibility by putting the onus on the other person to be forgiving.”

Minette Walters book The Chameleon's Shadow

Source: The Chameleon's Shadow

Way, Forgiveness, Personality

“Trying to write is very much like trying to put a Chinese puzzle together. We have a pattern in mind which we wish to work out in words; but the words will not fit the spaces, or, if they do, they will not match the design.”

Helen Keller book The Story of My Life

Source: The Story of My Life

“Libertas et natale solum:
Fine words! I wonder where you stole 'em.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Verses Occasioned by Whitshed's Motto on his Coach (1724); the Latin indicates "liberty and my native land", and Whitshed was a chief justice enraged by The Drapier's Letters

“There comes a time for everybody when words and reasons can become such a great weariness.”

Christopher Pike book Sati

Source: Sati

Time

“As birds' wings beat the solid air without which none could fly so words freed by the imagination affirm reality by their flight.”

William Carlos Williams book Spring and All

Source: Spring and All

Imagination, Bird, Reality, Flying

“I have been a believer in the magic of language since, at a very early age, I discovered that some words got me into trouble and others got me out.”

Katherine Dunn (1945–2016) American novelist, journalist, poet

Age

“Words are immortal - Elinor”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

“Without using the word, everyone started forgiving each other again. Just like that, from the no of all nothingness: you have a big tense mess and out of it comes some joy. It must be magic.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Forgiveness, Joy

“While a truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

“The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“The reality we can put into words is never reality itself.”

Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) German theoretical physicist

Reality

“I want to see the thirst
inside the syllables
I want to touch the fire
in the sound:
I want to feel the darkness
of the cry. I want
words as rough
as virgin rocks.” - Verb.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Feeling, Cry

“I longed to return to that bloody riverbank, to throw myself in the path of the final arrow, to die ignorant, and so, in love. Better to be killed by an arrow than by the words of the one I most trusted.”

Robin Wasserman (1978) American writer of speculative fiction for young people

Source: The Book of Blood and Shadow

Love

“I long ago abandoned myself to a blind lust for the written word. Literature is my sandbox. In it I play, build my forts and castles, spend glorious time.”

Rabih Alameddine book An Unnecessary Woman

Source: An Unnecessary Woman

Literature, Time

“War." Gorgon spits the word. "That is what they call it to give the illusion of honor and law. It is chaos. Madness and blood and the hunger to win. It has always been thus and shall always be so.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Hunger, War, Law, Madness

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Love, Hate, Hope

“Murderess is a strong word to have attached to you. It has a smell to it, that word - musky and oppressive, like dead flowers in a vase. Sometimes at night I whisper it over to myself:. It rustles, like a taffeta skirt across the floor.”

Margaret Atwood book Alias Grace

Source: Alias Grace

Flowers, Strong, Night, Dead

“That was the thing about pictures--they were worth a thousand words, but sometimes they weren't the right ones.”

Melissa de la Cruz (1971) American writer

Source: Skinny-Dipping

“words are like nets - we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, or grief, or wonder.”

Jodi Picoult Change of Heart

Source: Change of Heart

Hope, Joy

“Words," he said, "is oh such a twitch-tickling problem to me all my life.”

Roald Dahl The BFG

Source: The BFG

Life, Problem

“The words that matter always stay.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“I suppose the word "unbearable" is a lie by definition. Unless you kill yourself immediately after using it.”

Glen Duncan (1965) British writer

Source: The Last Werewolf

Lie

“If the word doesn't exist, invent it; but first be sure it doesn't exist.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

“Even as the words came out of my mouth, my heart was dying a million deaths.”

Anthony Kiedis book Scar Tissue

Source: Scar Tissue

Death, Heart

“Sometimes I think that if it were possible to tell a story often enough to make the hurt ease up, to make the words slide down my arms and away from me like water, I would tell that story a thousand times.”

Anita Shreve book The Weight of Water

Source: The Weight of Water

Thinking, Water, Time, Hurt

“it does seem
the more we drink
the better the words
go.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

Drink

“There must be a language that doesn't depend on words.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Dependency

“Almost seventy years later I remember clearly how the magic of translating the words in books into images enriched my life, breaking the barriers of time and space…”

Mario Vargas Llosa (1936) Peruvian writer, politician, journalist, and essayist

Life, Books, Time

“Lips. There was something strangely, delicately
indelicate about the word, like a kiss
itself.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Kiss

“Cora didn't know what optimistic meant. She asked the other girls that night if they were familiar with the word. None of them had heard it before. She decided that it meant trying.”

Colson Whitehead book The Underground Railroad

Source: The Underground Railroad

Girl, Night

“When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote in a letter to Theo van Gogh, from Arles, c. Saturday, 29 September 1888; as cited in An Examined Faith : Social Context and Religious Commitment (1991) by James Luther Adams and George K. Beach, p. 259
1880s, 1888

Religion, Star, Painting

“Voice is not just the sound that comes from your throat, but the feelings that come from your words.”

Jennifer Donnelly A Northern Light

Source: A Northern Light

Feeling

“I tried to communicate happiness in that word, but I don't know if it came out that way. All I was feeling was despair. And envy. Envy so thick and so black I felt like I was choking on it.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Happiness, Way, Feeling, Communication

“But words are vain; reject them all—
They utter but a feeble part:
Hear thou the depths from which they call,
The voiceless longing of my heart.”

George MacDonald book Phantastes

Source: Phantastes

Heart, Parting

“For each person there is a sentence — a series of words — which has the power to destroy him”

Philip K. Dick book VALIS

VALIS (1981)
Context: For each person there is a sentence — a series of words — which has the power to destroy him … another sentence exists, another series of words, which will heal the person. If you're lucky you will get the second; but you can be certain of getting the first: that is the way it works. On their own, without training, individuals know how to deal out the lethal sentence, but training is required to deal out the second.

Personality