Quotes about wording
page 65

Marguerite Duras photo

“I see journalists as the manual workers, the laborers of the word. Journalism can only be literature when it is passionate.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

Walesa's Wife, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).

John Ogilby photo

“Loud Threatnings make men stubborn, but kind Words
Pierce gentle Breasts sooner than sharpest Swords.”

John Ogilby (1600–1676) Scottish academic

Fab. LXV: Of the Sun and Wind, Moral
The Fables of Aesop (2nd ed. 1668)

Walter Cronkite photo

“[A]fter I got evicted from the Republican Party, I began reading considerably more of the works of American anarchists, thanks largely to Murray Rothbard…and I was just amazed.When I read Emma Goldman, it was as though everything I had hoped that the Republican Party would stand for suddenly came out crystallised. It was a magnificently clear statement. And another interesting things about reading Emma Goldman is that you immediately see that, consciously or not, she's the source of the best in Ayn Rand. She has the essential points that the Ayn Rand philosophy thinks, but without any of this sort of crazy solipsism that Rand is so fond of, the notion that people accomplish everything all in isolation. Emma Goldman understands that there’s a social element to even science, but she also writes that all history is a struggle of the individual against the institutions, which of course is what I’d always thought Republicans were saying, and so it goes.In other words, in the Old Right, there were a lot of statements that seemed correct, and they appeal to you emotionally, as well; it was why I was a Republican—isolationist, anti-authoritarian positions, but they’re not illuminated by anything more than statement. They just are good statements. But in the writings of the anarchists the same statements are made, but with this long illumination out of experience, analysis, comparison…it's rock-solid, and so I immediately realised that I'd been stumbling around inventing parts of a tradition that was old and thoughtful and already existed, and that's very nice to discover that—I don't think it's necessary to invent everything.”

Karl Hess (1923–1994) American journalist

Anarchism in America http://alexpeak.com/art/films/aia/ (15 January 1983)

Jacques Ellul photo

“…. but I use the word (devotion) in a greater latitude so as to comprehend under it faith, hope, love, fear, trust, humility, submission, honour, reverence, adoration, thanksgiving in a word all that duty which we owe to God.”

John Norris (1657–1711) English theologian, philosopher and poet

Reason and Religion; or, The Grounds and Measures of Devotion. Part I, Introduction, Section VIII.

Paul Klee photo
Graham Greene photo

“Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.”

Graham Greene (1904–1991) English writer, playwright and literary critic

"Freedom of Thought," speech accepting the Jerusalem Prize (6 April 1981)
Excerpted http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/18th-april-1981/19/books in the The Spectator (18 April 1981)

Phil Collins photo

“I can't remember those words (Lyrics) even when we were on tour.”

Phil Collins (1951) English musician, songwriter and actor

From "Telling Stories", when Collins was asked to sing "Home By The Sea", a song by the band Genesis from the album "Genesis"

“A childhood can be judged sheltered or not according to which was learned first, the four-letter word or the euphemism.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Brian K. Vaughan photo
Henri Lefebvre photo

“Only a vast inventory of the elements of our culture - in other words of our consciousness of life - will enable us to see clearly.”

Henri Lefebvre (1901–1991) French philosopher

From Critique of Everyday Life: Volume 1 (1947/1991)

Joe Higgins photo
Rod Serling photo

“I'm dedicating my little story to you; doubtless you will be among the very few who will ever read it. It seems war stories aren't very well received at this point. I'm told they're out-dated, untimely and as might be expected - make some unpleasant reading. And, as you have no doubt already perceived, human beings don't like to remember unpleasant things. They gird themselves with the armor of wishful thinking, protect themselves with a shield of impenetrable optimism, and, with a few exceptions, seem to accomplish their "forgetting" quite admirably. But you, my children, I don't want you to be among those who choose to forget. I want you to read my stories and a lot of others like them. I want you to fill your heads with Remarque and Tolstoy and Ernie Pyle. I want you to know what shrapnel, and "88's" and mortar shells and mustard gas mean. I want you to feel, no matter how vicariously, a semblance of the feeling of a torn limb, a burnt patch of flesh, the crippling, numbing sensation of fear, the hopeless emptiness of fatigue. All these things are complimentary to the province of war and they should be taught and demonstrated in classrooms along with the more heroic aspects of uniforms, and flags, and honor and patriotism. I have no idea what your generation will be like. In mine we were to enjoy "Peace in our time". A very well meaning gentleman waved his umbrella and shouted those very words… less than a year before the whole world went to war. But this gentleman was suffering the worldly disease of insufferable optimism. He and his fellow humans kept polishing the rose colored glasses when actually they should have taken them off. They were sacrificing reason and reality for a brief and temporal peace of mind, the same peace of mind that many of my contemporaries derive by steadfastly refraining from remembering the war that came before.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

Excerpt from a dedication to an unpublished short story, "First Squad, First Platoon"; from Serling to his as yet unborn children.
Other

David Rockefeller photo
Stanley Holloway photo
Samuel R. Delany photo
Tom Hanks photo
Theodore Kaczynski photo
Aldous Huxley photo
Daniel Handler photo

“At this point in the dreadful story I am writing, I must interrupt for a moment and describe something that happened to a good friend of mine named Mr. Sirin. Mr. Sirin was a lepidoptrerist, a word which usually means "a person who studies butterflies." In this case, however, the word "lepidopterist" means "a man who was being pursued by angry government officials," and on the night I am telling you about they were right on his heels. Mr. Sirin looked back to see how close they were--four officers in their bright-pink uniforms, with small flashlights in their left hands and large nets in their right--and realized that in a moment they would catch up, and arrest him and his six favorite butterflies, which were frantically flapping alongside him. Mr. Sirin did not care much if he was captured--he had been in prison four and a half times over the course of his long and complicated life--but he cared very much about the butterflies. He realized that these six delicate insects would undoubtedly perish in bug prison, where poisonous spiders, stinging bees, and other criminals would rip them to shreds. So, as the secret police closed in, Mr. Sirin opened his mouth as wide as he could and swallowed all six butterflies whole, quickly placing them in the dark but safe confines of his empty stomach. It was not a pleasant feeling to have these six insects living inside him, but Mr. Sirin kept them there for three years, eating only the lightest foods served in prison so as not to crush the insects with a clump of broccoli or a baked potato. When his prison sentence was over, Mr. Sirin burped up the grateful butterflies and resumed his lepidoptery work in a community that was much more friendly to scientists and their specimens.”

Lemony Snicket
The Hostile Hospital (2001)

Patrick Rothfuss photo
Leo Tolstoy photo
Marcus Aurelius photo

“No carelessness in your actions. No confusion in your words. No imprecision in your thoughts.”

Hays translation
Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.
VIII, 51
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

Mark Heard photo
M. Balamuralikrishna photo
Douglas MacArthur photo

“I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote Search. There was no carefully designed work plan. There was no theory that I was out to prove. I went out and talked to genuinely smart, remarkably interesting, first-rate people. I had an infinite travel budget that allowed me to fly first class and stay at top-notch hotels and a license from McKinsey to talk to as many cool people as I could all around the United States and the world.
I went to see Karl Weick, who had totally influenced my life. I had read his work a thousand times, and I'd never met him. I went to Oslo to talk with Einar Thorsrud, who had studied empowerment on oil tankers. I went to the Tavistock Institute in London, where the leading thinkers on organizational development were looking at why people work together effectively in team configurations under certain circumstances.
Word of the meeting got back to McKinsey USA, and I was invited to give a presentation to the top management of PepsiCo… The time was drawing near for the Pepsi presentation to take place. One morning at about 6, I sat down at my desk overlooking the San Francisco Bay from the 48th floor of the Bank of America Tower, and I closed my eyes. Then I leaned forward, and I wrote down eight things on a pad of paper. Those eight things haven't changed since that moment. They were the eight basic principles of Search.”

Tom Peters (1942) American writer on business management practices

Tom Peters (2001) "Tom Peters's True Confessions" in Fast Company, December 2001 ( online http://www.fastcompany.com/44077/tom-peterss-true-confessions, Nov 31, 2001).

Victor Villaseñor photo
Eric Hoffer photo
Dennis Skinner photo
Stephen King photo
H.L. Mencken photo
Henry Suso photo
Francis Beaumont photo

“What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been
So nimble and so full of subtile flame
As if that every one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,
And resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life.”

Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) British dramatist

Letter to Ben Jonson (1605), verses prefacing Jonson’s Volpone, as reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Leo Tolstoy photo

“The relation of word to thought, and the creation of new concepts is a complex, delicate and enigmatic process unfolding in our soul.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Pegagogicheskie Statli (Pedagogical Writings), pg. 143.
Pedagogical Writings (1903)

Stanley Baldwin photo
Helen Reddy photo

“The word failure is not in my vocabulary. I learn something every day. It's human to make mistakes.”

Helen Reddy (1941) Australian actress

On the incidents in her career in Las Vegas as quoted in "Reddy: Full Speed Ahead... and Back". Hawn, Jack, L. A. Times, 25 July 1987 http://articles.latimes.com/1987-07-25/entertainment/ca-1064_1_full-speed

Richard Chenevix Trench photo

“As shadows attend substances, so words follow upon things.”

Richard Chenevix Trench (1807–1886) Irish bishop

Study of Words; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 907.

Fernand Léger photo
Violet Trefusis photo

“Across my life only one word will be written: "waste" - waste of love, waste of talent, waste of enterprise.”

Violet Trefusis (1894–1972) English writer and socialite

Author: Mitchell A. Leaska, Violet to Vita: The Letters of Violet Trefusis to Vita Sackville-West, 1910-1921, published in (1990), pg.242

Ralph Bunche photo

“A word in season spoken
May calm the troubled breast.”

Charles Jefferys (1807–1865) British music publisher

A Word in Season, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Ted Cruz photo

“Ya' want to know what I will do as president it's real simple. We'll kill terrorists, we'll repeal Obamacare, and we will defend the constitution. Every single word of of it!”

Ted Cruz (1970) American politician

At the Republican Presidential Debate. September 16th, 2015.
2010s

Margaret Sanger photo

“We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) American birth control activist, educator and nurse

Misquoted by Diane S. Dew http://www.dianedew.com/sanger.htm (2001)
Omits words from a letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble Sanger proposing the "Negro Project", where Sanger wrote: "And <span style="color:darkgray">we do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,</span> and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea <span style="color:darkgray">if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.</span>"
The quote was similarly misused in "Women, Race, & Class" (12 February 1983) by Angela Davis, where it is implied that that Sanger was organizing an extermination campaign and the minister would be the main propaganda milling machine.
Misattributed

Amir Taheri photo

“Ever since its emergence a few months ago, the declared ambition of the startup caliphate of the Islamic State has been to “wipe out every trace of Infidel influence” in areas under its control. Yet, with each passing day, it becomes more clear that, its deadly fantasies notwithstanding, the IS can’t escape from a world created and dominated by the Infidel. Start with the name that the IS, or Daesh in Arabic, has chosen for itself: ad-dawlat al-Islamiyah, or “Islamic Government.” The concepts of “state” and “government” are entirely Western, not adopted by Muslim peoples until the 19th century. The very words “state” and “government” are never mentioned in the Quran. Daesh’s “caliph” has also appointed a number of vizirs. This, too, is un-Islamic. Of Persian origin, the word vizir designated high officials of the pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire overthrown by Arab Muslim warriors in the 7th century. Mohammad had no vizirs, nor did any of his four immediate successors, the so-called “Well Guided caliphs…” The Islamic State’s most noteworthy embrace of the works of the “Infidel,” however, is surely its use of the satanic Internet. Its personnel, including converts from Europe and North America, regularly display across the Web what seems to be the main, if not the only, thing they’ve learned from Islam: cutting the throats of defenseless captives.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

"The not-so-Islamic State: ISIS’ huge debt to the infidel" http://nypost.com/2014/11/20/the-not-so-islamic-state-isis-huge-debt-to-the-infidel/, New York Post (November 20, 2014).
New York Post

Alfred Korzybski photo

“The word is not the thing.”

Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish scientist and philosopher

Source: Science and Sanity (1933), p. 222.

Elfriede Jelinek photo
Henri Bourassa photo
Ken Ham photo

“I’m shocked at the countless hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent over the years in the desperate and fruitless search for extraterrestrial life… Of course, secularists are desperate to find life in outer space, as they believe that would provide evidence that life can evolve in different locations and given the supposed right conditions! The search for extraterrestrial life is really driven by man’s rebellion against God in a desperate attempt to supposedly prove evolution!… And I do believe there can’t be other intelligent beings in outer space because of the meaning of the gospel. You see, the Bible makes it clear that Adam’s sin affected the whole universe. This means that any aliens would also be affected by Adam’s sin, but because they are not Adam’s descendants, they can’t have salvation. One day, the whole universe will be judged by fire, and there will be a new heavens and earth. God’s Son stepped into history to be Jesus Christ, the “Godman,” to be our relative, and to be the perfect sacrifice for sin—the Savior of mankind. Jesus did not become the “GodKlingon” or the “GodMartian”! Only descendants of Adam can be saved. God’s Son remains the “Godman” as our Savior. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that we see the Father through the Son (and we see the Son through His Word). To suggest that aliens could respond to the gospel is just totally wrong. An understanding of the gospel makes it clear that salvation through Christ is only for the Adamic race—human beings who are all descendants of Adam.”

Ken Ham (1951) Australian young Earth creationist

"We'll find a new Earth within 20 years" http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2014/07/20/well-find-a-new-earth-within-20-years/, Around the World with Ken Ham (July 20, 2014)
Around the World with Ken Ham (May 2005 - Ongoing)

Meat Loaf photo

“You gotta understand that people attach me and Jim Steinman. But you really have to attach Todd Rundgren to that. … you really have to credit Todd Rundgren for the initial mark. Yes, Steinman had things in his head. And, yes, I had some things in my head; I had how “All Revved Up with No Place to Go” should sound in my head. Jim had how “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)” should sound in his head. But pulling things out of your head and accomplishing them, and somebody else trying to accomplish them, is a remarkable feat. … So not taking anything away from Jim, ‘cause Jim is an absolute genius and one of the smartest people that I’ve ever known, and I consider him one of my best friends. But, y’know, sometimes, people just… they pigeonhole things, and they go, “Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf.” And my thing is, no, stop it! Because the Bat Out of Hell records are this: it’s a big wheel, and everybody is a spoke in that wheel… and, at different times as that wheel’s turning, different people have more input than others. It’s, like, as a wheel turns, the bottom spokes take more than the top spokes…but, pretty soon, those are gonna be the bottom spokes, and their import is more. And, so, that’s how that goes with the Bat Out of Hell records… and that’s exactly Bat Out of Hell III.”

Meat Loaf (1947) American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor

On credit for the Bat out of Hell albums.
A chat with Meat Loaf (2006)

Rob Enderle photo

“I was recently at a meeting of analysts and vendors, and got into a conversation about Apple with one of the ex-Apple executives at the meeting. I got the sense that Tim Cook was hired because he was good at everything Jobs didn't like to do, and Phil Schiller was basically Jobs' internal fan club chairman. In other words, you really don't have a viable company without someone doing what Jobs did.”

Rob Enderle (1954) American financial analyst

No magic, no Apple: Cupertino's identity crisis in the fading afterglow of Jobs http://digitaltrends.com/opinion/no-magic-no-apple-cupertinos-identity-crisis-in-the-fading-afterglow-of-jobs in Digital Trends (10 August 2013)

H. G. Wells photo
Joseph Joubert photo
Ken Ham photo
James G. Watt photo

“I never use the words Democrats and Republicans. It's liberals and Americans.”

James G. Watt (1938) United States Secretary of the Interior

Statement of November 1981, quoted in New York Times (10 October 1983), also quoted in Energy and Environment : The Unfinished Business (1986) by Congressional Quarterly, Inc., p. 91
1980s

William L. Shirer photo
Georg Büchner photo

“That is a long word: forever!”

Act I.
Leonce and Lena (1838)

Ernest Hemingway photo
Oliver Cowdery photo

“BE IT KNOWN unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unto whom this work shall come: That we, through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, which is a record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, their brethren, and also of the people of Jared, who came from the tower of which hath been spoken. And we also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true. And we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true. And it is marvelous in our eyes. Nevertheless, the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment-seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen. OLIVER COWDERY DAVID WHITMER MARTIN HARRIS”

Oliver Cowdery (1806–1850) American Mormon leader

Book of Mormon, 1830 Edition, p. 585 (1830).

Hans Frank photo
Abby Stein photo
Kate Bush photo
Pedro Muñoz Seca photo

“Alas, I was wrong when I spoke those word: you are so skilled that you have been able to take even my fear away.”

Pedro Muñoz Seca (1879–1936) Spanish writer

Said shortly afterwards during the trial.
Source: http://www.abc.es/20081104/opinion-firmas/mataron-munoz-seca-20081104.html

Nathaniel Hawthorne photo
Hosea Ballou photo

“Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within the hearsay of little children tends towards the formation of character.”

Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) American Universalist minister (1771–1852)

Manuscript, Sermons; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 216.

Anthony Crosland photo

“Writing is nothing less than thought transference, the ability to send one's ideas out into the world, beyond time and distance, taken at the value of the words, unbound from the speaker.”

Arthur M. Jolly (1969) American writer

Arthur M. Jolly, interview with Purple Pencil Adventures http://www.purplepenciladventures.com/2010/04/why-write-screenwriter-and-playwright.html (2010)
Interviews and profiles

Edward Jenks photo
Will Eisner photo
John Allen Paulos photo

“Correlation and causation are two quite different words, and the innumerate are more prone to mistake them than most.”

John Allen Paulos (1945) American mathematician

Source: Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988), Chapter 5, “Statistics, Trade-Offs, and Society” (p. 159)

David Whitmer photo
T. E. Hulme photo

“A poem is good if it contains a new analogy and startles the reader out of the habit of treating words as counters.”

T. E. Hulme (1883–1917) English Imagist poet and critic

Speculations (Essays, 1924)

E.E. Cummings photo
Gore Vidal photo
Taylor Swift photo
Thomas Carlyle photo

“"The people may eat grass": hasty words, which fly abroad irrevocable—and will send back tidings.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Pt. I, Bk. III, ch. 9.
1830s, The French Revolution. A History (1837)

Vyjayanthimala photo
Pope Benedict XVI photo
Francois Rabelais photo

“Pantagruel was telling me that he believed the queen had given the symbolic word used among her subjects to denote sovereign good cheer, when she said to her tabachins, A panacea.”

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564), Chapter 20 : How the Quintessence cured the sick with a song

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon photo

“There is no magic in words.”

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (1732–1802) British Baron

King v. Inhabitants of North Nibley (1792), 5 T. R. 24; Lord Romilly, Lord v. Jeffkins (1865), 35 Beav. 16.

Neil Gaiman photo
Ernest Hemingway photo
Mike Oldfield photo
Buddy Holly photo

“Words of love you whisper soft and true
Darling I love you.”

Buddy Holly (1936–1959) American singer-songwriter

Words Of Love
Song lyrics, Buddy Holly (1958)

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet photo
Rousas John Rushdoony photo
Timo Soini photo

“People in this country have been sceptical about if the Finns Party had what it takes to be a part of government. For a long time now, we have been the most steadfast piece of the puzzle, despite the challenges. Why? Because we keep our word.”

Timo Soini (1962) Finnish politician

Timo Soini addressed his Finns Party council on March 12, 2016, and one of his main messages was that his party would prevail over recent plummeting support in public opinions polls, quoted on yle.fi, "Soini: Finns Party could gain back voters by next elections" http://yle.fi/uutiset/soini_finns_party_could_gain_back_voters_by_next_elections/8740255, March 13, 2016.

Daniel Dennett photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Cesar Chavez photo
Tim McGraw photo