Quotes about wording

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“Remember, 'No one's more important than people'! In other words, friendship is the most important thing--not career or housework, or one's fatigue--and it needs to be tended and nurtured.”

“We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.”

“Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it.”

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew, upon a thought produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think.”

“There had not been this many words sounded in our house for a long time, and it was going to take a while to clean them out.”

“Jack grabbed Phil's arm to teleport back to Romatech.
Phil muttered a curse. "If you say one word about this to the other guys, I will stake you in your sleep."
"Don't worry, sweetheart. If they find out about this, I'll stake myself.”

“I wonder how she'll make up her mind."
"Oh, that I do know." I can just catch Gale's last words through the layer of fur. "Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can't survive without.”

“Be an encourager. Scatter sunshine. Who knows whose life you might touch with something as simple as a kind word.”

“Atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them -- and then they leap.”

“Once upon a time," he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.”

“No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.”

“The objective level is not words, and cannot be reached by words alone. We must point our finger and be silent, or we will never reach this level.”

“This Lullaby is only a few words, a simple run of chords, quiet here in this spare room, but you can hear it, hear it, wherever you may go, even if I let you down, this lullaby plays on…”

“Trying to write about love is ultimately like trying to have a dictionary represent life. No matter how many words there are, there will never be enough.”

“I never go back on my word! That's my nindo, my ninja way!”

“Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.”

“She is more beautiful than I have words for. And last night, I was blessed beyond measure to serve her.”

“The term “starvation diet” refers to 900 calories a day. I was on one-third of a starvation diet. What do you call that? One word that comes to my mind: “suicide.”

“Styx and The Stones may break my bones but 'More than Words' will never hurt me”

“I don’t want the world. I want you,” Alec said, and Magnus closed his eyes, as if the words almost hurt.”

“Why have you chosen to spare me?”
“I want us to be…what is your word? Friends.”
“Psychotic rapists don’t have friends.”
“I was unaware you were a psychotic rapist or I would not have offered.”
“Ha.” I’d set myself up for that one.”

“Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking.”

“He was having an odd paternal rush, a blood surge that was alsoblood and was presently hunting through Howard's expansive intelligence to find words that would more effectively express something like”

“The greatest tales, well told, awaken the fears and longings of the listeners. Each man hears a different story. Each is touched by it according to his inner self. The words go to the ear, but the true message travels straight to the spirit.”

“I don't have anything else to add. I just wanted to make sure I had the last word. I think I've earned that.”

“There are no simple words. I don't know why I thought I could hide anything behind language.”

“Don't say 'wife.' I'm your mistress. Wife's such an ugly word. Your 'permanent mistress' is so much more tangible and desirable….”

“It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence.”

“I am reminded again that the greatest phrase ever written is words, words, words.”

“The words "Think and Thank" are inscribed in many of the Cromwellian churches of
England. These words ought to be inscribed in our hearts, too: "Think and Thank". Think
of all we have to be grateful for, and thank God for all our boons and bounties.”

“People treat you as badly as you let them treat you. Key word there: let.”

“We spend so much time bantering about the words when the real open conversations might very well be our actions. I worry about our rhetoric.”

“I drew because words were too unpredictable.”

“The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.”

“In one word, Queequeg, said I, rather digressively; hell is an idea first born on an undigested apple-dumpling; and since then perpetuated through the hereditary dyspepsias nurtured by Ramadans.”

“Loafe with me on the grass—loose the stop from your throat;
Not words, not music or rhyme I want—not custom or lecture, not even the best;
Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.”

“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

“We are so used to releasing words, we don't know what to do with them if they stay. No matter how many times we let them go, they come back. The words that matter always stay.”

“What about you three, where are you going?"
Even before Halt answered, Will knew what he was going to say. But that didn't make it any less terrifying or blood-chilling when the words were said.
"We're going after the Kalkara.”

“I love you. Still not the right word, but i know you want to hear it.”

“Is there something wrong?” he asked.
She gave a short negative motion with her head. And then words, so sweet, like a cool northern breeze blowing off the lake. “You could hold me now.”
It was almost his undoing.
“Ah baby.”

“And the Bastard grant us... in our direst need, the smallest gifts: the nail of the horseshoe, the pin of the axle, the feather at the pivot point, the pebble at the mountain's peak, the kiss in despair, the one right word. In darkness, understanding.”

“Words are the part of silence that can be spoken.”

“It doesn't really matter what chords I play, what words I say or time of day it is, as it's only a Northern Song.”

“Whose cruel idea was it for the word “lisp” to have an “s” in it?”

“I am a poet in deeds--not often in words.”

“… there is a point when the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confused in a word, a mortal word, les miserables”

“The truth is we never stop being children, terrible children covered in sores and knotty veins and tumors and age spots, but ultimately children, in other words we never stop clinging to life because we are life.”

“And over all those sleepy weeks, the dream always ended the same way, with the dragon coming for the princess saying the same words every time….
"Face it, Tally-wa, you're Special.”

“For gods' sake, Strider," Torin snapped. "Open your mouth and form some words. While you're at it, stop staring at the angel like he's a tasty treat.”

“An ongoing relationship with God through His Word is essential to the Christian's consistent victory!”

“Mr. Sourpuss Pants God I love her Nicholas " Thomas crowed. When he noticed that neither Nicholas nor Inez looked impressed by the words he added quickly "In a totally sister-in-law type fashion of course.”

“Words have weight, something once said cannot be unsaid. Meaning is like a stone dropped into a pool; the ripples will spread and you cannot know what back they wash against.”

“A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect. Be gone, odious wasp! You smell of decayed syllables.”

“… I feel as though I am shelved. That I have been given the words to the story of my life, but that I have remained largely unread…”

“If there were one word that could act as a standard of conduct for one's entire life, perhaps it would be 'thoughtfulness.”

“Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French. One of the things which Gertrude Butterwick had impressed on Monty Bodkin when he left for his holiday on the Riviera was that he must be sure to practise his French, and Gertrude’s word was law. So now, though he knew that it was going to make his nose tickle, he said:
‘Er, garçon.’
‘M’sieur?’
‘Er, garçon, esker-vous avez un spot de l’encre et une piece de papier—note papier, vous savez—et une envelope et une plume.’
The strain was too great. Monty relapsed into his native tongue.
‘I want to write a letter,’ he said. And having, like all lovers, rather a tendency to share his romance with the world, he would probably have added ‘to the sweetest girl on earth’, had not the waiter already bounded off like a retriever, to return a few moments later with the fixings.
‘V’la, sir! Zere you are, sir,’ said the waiter. He was engaged to a girl in Paris who had told him that when on the Riviera he must be sure to practise his English. ‘Eenk—pin—pipper—enveloppe—and a liddle bit of bloddin-pipper.’
‘Oh, merci,’ said Monty, well pleased at this efficiency. ‘Thanks. Right-ho.’
‘Right-ho, m’sieur,’ said the waiter.”

“Pretty words, as pretty women, wrinkle up and die.”

“He who replies to words of doubt
doth put the light of knowledge out.”

“A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream.”

“By all means, avoid words—threats, complaints, justification, narratives, reframing, attempts to win arguments, supplications; avoid words!”

“I don't want to hear any words like that while I'm here. Scout, you'll get in trouble if you go around saying things like that. You want to grow up to be a lady, don't you?'

I said not particularly.”

“A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.”

“There are no bad words. Bad thoughts. Bad intentions, and wooooords.”

“He gave her an indulgent look. "I'll forgive these rash words for now." She sputtered, "Let's talk about who should be forgiving who."
"Whom," he corrected.
"Shut up! I'm in the right here. Remember all those things you did to me?”

“never's the word God listens for when he needs a laugh.”

“No fiction, no myths, no lies, no tangled webs - this is how Irie imagined her homeland. Becauseis one of the magical fantasy words likeandandthat have now passed into language.”

“For when all else is done, on­ly words re­main. Words en­dure.”

“But the words are easy and soothing, promising tomorrow will be more hopeful than this awful piece o time we call today.”

“Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.”

“The leaf fall of his words, the stained glass hues of his moods, the rust in his voice, the smoke in his mouth, his breath on my vision like human breath blinding a mirror.”

“The Apache don't have a word for love," he said.
"Know what they both say at the marriage? The squaw-taking ceremony?"
"Tell me."
"Varlebena. It means forever. That's all they say.”

“Euthanasia" is an excellent and comforting word! I am grateful to whoever invented it.”

“The first thing which I can record concerning myself is, that I was born. These are wonderful words. This life, to which neither time nor eternity can bring diminution - this everlasting living soul, began. My mind loses itself in these depths.”

“The oldest, shortest words— "yes" and "no"— are those which require the most thought.”

“If words can be lethal weapons, I must provide them with an arsenal.”

“… I love 'yes.' It's practically the most interesting word of all, don't you think?" Like a hinge opening a door outward. Yes, yes, yes.”

“The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.”

“Destiny is a lie. Destiny is justification for atrocity. It is the means by which murderers armour themselves against reprimand. It is a word intended to stand in place of ethics, denying all moral context.”

“What must that be like? To be admired before you’ve even said a word, to be desired two or three hundred times a day by people who have absolutely no idea what you’re like?”

“You… are… a… fridge… with wings,' Fang ground out, punching an Eraser hard with every word. 'We're… freaking… ballet… dancers.”

“I love you, Katie. You might not be ready to say those words now, and maybe you'll never be able to say them, but that doesn't change how I feel about you.”

“‎No people whose word for 'yesterday' is the same as their word for 'tomorrow' can be said to have a firm grip on the time.”

“Just kidding' was exactly what people wrote when they meant every word.”

“It is not about reading the Word. It is about obeying the Word.”

“Healthy striving is about striving for internal goals, and wanting to be our best selves. Perfectionism is not motivated internally. Perfectionism is about what people will think. And you do not see effective leaders in corporations sitting on an email for three hours to make sure it’s worded just perfectly. You don’t. They have work to get done.. You don’t see elite athletes letting themselves be discouraged by a bad workout or a single bad performance. It happens all the time. They’re accustomed to winning, they’re accustomed to losing. Once perfectionism becomes the goal, they’re out of the sport.”

“No sensible man ever engages, unprepared, in a fencing match of words with a woman.”

“There was something peculiarly gratifying about shouting in a blind rage until your words ran out.”

“Tsze-Kung asked, “Is there one word with which to act in accordance throughout a lifetime?” The Master said, “Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

“In a world where vows are worthless. Where making a pledge means nothing. Where promises are made to be broken, it would be nice to see words come back into power.”

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

“Words, he decided, were inadequate at best, impossible at worst. They meant too many things. Or they meant nothing at all.”

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

“Here stands a girl clutching a knife. There is grease on the stove, blood in the air, and angry words piled in the corners. We are trained not to see it, not to see any of it…. Someone just ripped off my eyelids.”

“I am telling you what I know—words have music and if you are a musician you will write to hear them.”

“We forget that IMPOSSIBLE is one of God's favorite words”

“Jack," said Charles, "he's making up words again."

"Yes," Jack replied, "but he's getting better at it, don't you think?”

“Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style.”

“I wanted to tell him so. Find the right words, string them together in the ideal way, knowing that here they would have the best chance of sounding perfect.”