Quotes about wording
page 49

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo
Elias Canetti photo

“If one has lived long enough, there is danger of succumbing to the word “God” merely because it was always there.”

Elias Canetti (1905–1994) Bulgarian-born Swiss and British jewish modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer

J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 108
Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock] (1987)

Calvin Coolidge photo

“The words of a President have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

As quoted in Coolidge: An American Enigma (1998), by Robert Sobel, Regnery Publishing, p. 243.
1920s

Mordechai Anielewicz photo
Lafcadio Hearn photo

“Japanese affection is not uttered in words; it scarcely appears even in the tone of voice; it is chiefly shown in acts of exquisite courtesy and kindness.”

Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904) writer

"Of the Eternal Feminine" (1893), cited from Out of the East; and, Kokoro (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922) p. 79.

Thomas Flanagan (political scientist) photo
Bill Bryson photo
Thomas Jefferson photo
Epifanio de los Santos photo

“powerful intelligence, a formidable receptacle of culture and gifted with words.”

Epifanio de los Santos (1871–1928) Filipino politician

As a quote by Jaime C. De Veyra in "81 Years of Premio Zobel Legacy of Philippine Literature in Spanish" by Lourdes Castrillo Brillantes. Vibal Publishing House, Inc. 2006.
BALIW

Fred Hoyle photo
Denis Healey photo

“No. Absolutely not. I think that the Russians are praying for a Labour victory…praying is perhaps an unfortunate choice of words. I think that they would much prefer a Labour government and that the idea that they would prefer a Tory government, I think is utter bunkum, and they [the Soviets] authorized me to say so.”

Denis Healey (1917–2015) British Labour Party politician and Life peer

Answering a suggestion that the Soviets would prefer a Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher than a Labour government headed by Neil Kinnock at a press conference in Moscow after a meeting with Anatoly Dobrynin (11 May 1987), quoted in E. B. Geelhoed, Margaret Thatcher: In Victory and Downfall, 1987 and 1990 (Greenwood, 1992), pp. 120-1.
1980s

Agnes Repplier photo
Henry James photo
Alberto Manguel photo
John Banville photo
Jacques Ellul photo
George William Curtis photo

“Mayor Macbeth, of Charleston, told General Howard that he did not believe that a bureau at Washington could manage the social relations of the people from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. But the answer to Mayor Macbeth is that he and his companions have managed those relations at a cost to the country of four years of civil war, three thousand millions of dollars, and hundreds of thousands of lives. The Freedmen's Bureau will hardly be as expensive as that. And while such a bureau merely defends the rights of a certain class under the laws, the aid societies give them that education which in the present state of local feeling would be inevitably withheld. The mighty arch of Sherman, wasting and taming the land, is followed by the noiseless steps of the band of unnamed heroes and heroines who are teaching the people. The soldier drew the furrow, the teacher drops the seed. There is many and many a devoted woman, hidden at this moment in the lowliest cabins of the South, whose name poets will not sing nor historians record, but whose patient toil the eye that marks the sparrow's fall beholds and approves. Not more noble, not more essential, was the work of the bravest and most famous of the heroes who fell in the wild storm of battle, than that of many a woman to us unknown, faithful through privation and exposure and disease, and perishing at the lonely outpost of duty in the act of helping the nation keep its word.”

George William Curtis (1824–1892) American writer

1860s, The Good Fight (1865)

“The misleading character of the accident theory is evident from the fact that even now the “error” involved from the standpoint of U. S. policy-makers and American leaders generally is neither one of purpose nor method – it is strictly a case of unexpectedly large expense. For the U. S. leadership, in other words, Vietnam is simply another, painfully large “cost over-run.” In terms of basic U. S. objectives and methods employed, in the Third World – essentially establishment of reliable client states, increasingly managed by military elites, with generous financial and military support (arms, advisors, Green Berets, and more extensive military intervention when junta control is threatened, as in Santo Domingo) – Vietnam is a facet of a completely rational policy. The policy may be vicious and catastrophic, from the perspective of the Vietnamese; and it may be a sordid and disruptive waste of human and material resources from the standpoint of the real interests of the ordinary American; but to the Rostows, Westmorelands and Nixons, the Vietnam War is a noble endeavor (“one of our finest moments”) that we cannot afford to abandon without achieving our original ends. The evidence is compelling that this leadership is entirely capable of destroying every village in Vietnam (and in the process, every Vietnamese) if this is required to attain the original political objectives.”

Edward S. Herman (1925–2017) American journalist

Source: Atrocities in Vietnam: Myths and Realities, 1970, pp. 87-88.

Matthew Stover photo
Kamal Haasan photo

“Who will speak like that? In our generation there have not been friends like Rajini and I are. He could have just said a few words of praise and gone away – and then there was no need to say.”

Kamal Haasan (1954) Indian actor

In reply to the wholesome praise that Rajnikanth showered on Kamal Haasan, in Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography (15 January 2014) http://books.google.co.in/books?id=3mzyPGSfwKMC&pg=PT120, p. 120

Aga Khan III photo
Ian Fleming photo
Gabrielle Roy photo

“Maybe the Lord's word is decisive on that: The poor are always with us. You know, you'll never run out of people, you can help.”

Chuck Feeney (1931) American businessman

Secret Billionaire: The Chuck Feeney Story http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/learning/video-secret-billionaire-chuck-feeney-story

John Stuart Mill photo
John Pilger photo
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick photo
Philip K. Dick photo
Warren G. Harding photo

“I don't know much about Americanism, but it's a damn good word with which to carry an election.”

Warren G. Harding (1865–1923) American politician, 29th president of the United States (in office from 1921 to 1923)

Actually an exchange between journalist Talcott Williams and Sen. Boies Penrose (1919)
What is Americanism?
Damn if I know, but it's going to be a damn good word with which to carry an election.
Misattributed

Doris Lessing photo
John McCain photo

“I am reminded of the words of Chairman Mao: It's always darkest before it goes completely black.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

As quoted in "McCain Wraps It Up" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mccain-wraps-it-up/ (5 March 2008), by Andante Higgins, CBS News
2000s

Douglas Adams photo
Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV photo
Roger Ebert photo
Helen Nearing photo
Bhakti Tirtha Swami photo
Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“The word of man is the most durable of all material.”

Vol. 2, Ch. 25, sect. 298
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Counsels and Maxims

Gloria E. Anzaldúa photo
Edward de Bono photo
Paul Muldoon photo

“Words want to find chimes with each other, things want to connect.”

Paul Muldoon (1951) Irish poet

Interviewed in Thumbscrew, Spring 1996. http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=12522

Frederick Douglass photo
Ralph Ellison photo
Alfred Brendel photo

“The word 'listen' contains the same letters as the word 'silent.”

Alfred Brendel (1931) Austrian pianist, poet, and author

Cited in: Karen Offord. Dare to Dream: Your Journey of a Lifetime, 2014, p. 115.

André Maurois photo

“To reason with poorly chosen words is like using a pair of scales with inaccurate weights.”

André Maurois (1885–1967) French writer

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Friendship

Bette Davis photo

“In the beginning was the Word,' and you must not be tempted with a script just because you have a great part. You want a great role to play, but the whole - the whole - must be good. It'll never succeed if it's just the role you like.”

Bette Davis (1908–1989) film and television actress from the United States

Louise Sweeney (December 28, 1987) "Bette Davis: On the heels of a new honor and a new film, a screen legend looks back over her 60-year career", Christian Science Monitor, p. 19.

Robert Barron (bishop) photo
John Gray photo
Marguerite Yourcenar photo

“One must not fear the words anymore when one consented to the things.”

Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987) French writer

On ne doit plus craindre les mots lorsqu'on a consenti aux choses.
Alexis (1929)

David Woodard photo

“The secret is the secret. Sincerity is the word.”

David Woodard (1964) American writer, conductor and businessman

Breed the Unmentioned (1985)

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey photo

“What I most heartily wish for is, a union between the two countries: by a union I mean something more than a mere word—a union, not of parliaments, but of hearts, affections, and interests—a union of vigour, of ardour, of zeal for the general welfare of the British empire. It is this species of union, and this only, that can tend to increase the real strength of the empire, and give it security against any danger. But if any measure with the name only of union be proposed, and the tendency of which would be to disunite us, to create disaffection, distrust, and jealousy, it can only tend to weaken the whole of the British empire. Of this nature do I take the present measure to be. Discontent, distrust, jealousy, suspicion, are the visible fruits of it in Ireland already: if you persist in it, resentment will follow; and although you should be able, which I doubt, to obtain a seeming consent of the parliament of Ireland to the measure, yet the people of that country would wait for an opportunity of recovering their rights, which they will say were taken from them by force.”

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Speech in the House of Commons on the proposed unification of Great Britain and Ireland (7 February 1799), reported in The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803. Vol. XXXIV (London: 1819), p. 334.
1790s

Doug McIlroy photo

“Word and Excel and PowerPoint and other Microsoft programs have intimate — one might say promiscuous — knowledge of each others' internals. In Unix, one tries to design programs to operate not specifically with each other, but with programs as yet unthought of.”

Doug McIlroy (1932) American computer scientist, mathematician, engineer, and programmer

Doug McIlroy (2003). The Art of Unix Programming: The Elements of Operating-System Style http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch03s01.html

Joseph Beuys photo
Aaron Ramsey photo
Michelangelo Antonioni photo
Vanna Bonta photo

“In her heart she harbors hatred for me, but it would ruin the game if we didn't have tea. The words slither out laced with venom so vile it would pucker my face but she says it and smiles.”

Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) Italian-American writer, poet, inventor, actress, voice artist (1958-2014)

"Do I Have To?"
Degrees: Thought Capsules and Micro Tales (1989)

Joseph Joubert photo

“This poetic nudity within words.”

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist
Jerry Fodor photo
Judith Sheindlin photo

“Consider yourself having been reasonably humiliated in front of ten million people. Now, without saying another word, turn around, and find the exit. Goodbye.”

Judith Sheindlin (1942) American lawyer, judge, television personality, and author

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLQ3fw-7_hA&feature=bf_next&list=UUNOaQAKNIBe0AHquR9ttP0g&lf=plcp
Quotes from Judge Judy cases, Dismissing a statement or case

Denis Leary photo

“Why should it not be the whole function of a word to denote many things?”

J. L. Austin (1911–1960) English philosopher

Source: Philosophical Papers (1979), p. 38.

Perry Anderson photo
Pete Doherty photo
Maimónides photo
Ted Kennedy photo

“I hope for an America where neither "fundamentalist" nor "humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of good will look at life and into their own souls.”

Ted Kennedy (1932–2009) United States Senator

Speech on "Truth and Tolerance in America," Oct. 3, 1983, Lynchburg, Va. Cited by latimes.com http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-naw-ted-kennedy-quotes26-2009aug26,0,3918428.story, 26 August 2009

Elie Wiesel photo
Julia Serano photo
Rutherford B. Hayes photo

“My only objection to the arrangements there is the two-in-a-bed system. It is bad…. But let your words and conduct be perfectly pure — such as your mother might know without bringing a blush to your cheek…. If not already mentioned, do not tell your mother of the doubling in bed.”

Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) American politician, 19th President of the United States (in office from 1877 to 1881)

Letter to his son, Rutherford P. Hayes (26 February 1875)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)

James Martineau photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Zoroaster photo
Joseph Heller photo
Enda Kenny photo

“Generally when people speak to each other they use words.”

Enda Kenny (1951) Irish Fine Gael politician and Taoiseach

At a public event in July 2012. Irish Independent http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/lost-for-words-3174922.html
2010s

Muhammad photo

“Abu Hurayra stated that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The most truthful phrase ever said by a poet is the words of Labid: "Everything except Allah is false."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 3, hadith number 490
Sunni Hadith

Svetlana Alexievich photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Seyyed Hossein Nasr photo
Muhammad Iqbál photo
John Wycliffe photo

“There was good reason for the silence of the Holy Spirit as to how, when, in what form Christ ordained the apostles, the reason being to show the indifferency of all forms of words.”

John Wycliffe English theologian and early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church

Latin statement in De Quattuor Sectis Novellis, as translated in Typical English Churchmen (1909) by John Neville Figgis, p. 16

Kent Hovind photo

“I believe that God’s Word is infallible and flawless in every detail. If the Bible says that something was created a certain way, then that is just the way it happened.”

Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist

Dissertation for doctor of philosophy in christian education (May 25, 1991)

Giovannino Guareschi photo
T.S. Eliot photo
Benvenuto Cellini photo

“I said, in response to his words, that men who wanted to do things in their own way had better make a world in their own way, because in this world things are not done like this.”

Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571) Florentine sculptor and goldsmith

Dissi, a quelle parole, che gli uomini che volevan fare a lor modo, bisognava che si facessino un mondo a lor modo, perché in questo non si usava cosí.
Autobiography, vol. 1, ch. 79 (1558-66); translation from Benvenuto Cellini (trans. Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella) My Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 132.

“But now, the sounds of infancy, always nearest the heart, and sure to come to the lips in our deepest emotion, returned in His anguish; and in words which He had learned at His mother's knee, His heart uttered its last wail — "Eloi! Eloi! lama sabachthani?"”

John Cunningham Geikie (1824–1906) Scottish Presbyterian minister and author

"My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken me?"
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 73.

Max Tegmark photo
Ai Weiwei photo
George W. Bush photo

“In other words, words can be empty and all that does is just reinforce the bad behavior of tyrants.”

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

2010s, 2011, Speech at the Gerald R. Ford Foundation (2011)

“Justice Antonin Scalia fundamentally changed the way the Supreme Court interpreted both statutes and the Constitution. In both contexts, his focus on text and its original public meaning often translated into more limited criminal prohibitions and broader constitutional protections for defendants. ‎As to statutes, Justice Scalia refocused the court’s attention on the text of the laws Congress enacted. Although he may not have succeeded in getting the court to forswear even looking at legislative history, he did persuade his colleagues to start — and very often end — the analysis with the text. In the criminal context, he limited terms like extortion and property to their common law core and found the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act as unconstitutionally vague as “the phrase ‘fire-engine red, light pink, maroon, navy blue, or colors that otherwise involve shades of red.” When it came to interpreting the Constitution, he likewise put the text first and emphasized that the terms must be understood in light of their original public meaning. He believed that the words should be understood the way the framers used them. This did not mean that constitutional protections were frozen in time.”

In Scalia, criminal defendants have lost a great defender: Paul Clement https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/02/19/scalia-funeral-constitution-defendants-jury-paul-clement-column/80575460/ (February 19, 2016)