Quotes About Words

What was going on at the time? What were the circumstances that the author addressed? What did the author's words and allusions mean in their ancient historical and literary setting? Without context, one can imagine that a text means almost anything.

Calamus fortior gladio.

Neither of us says the word love, not once. It would be tempting fate; it would be romance, bad luck.

When they're gone out of his head, these words, they'll be gone, everywhere, forever. As if they had never been.

How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word.

He'd developed a strangely tender feeling towards such words, as if they were children abandoned in the woods and it was his duty to rescue them.

Things written down can cause a great deal of harm. All too often, people don't consider that.

Paper isn't important. It's the words on them that are important.

You're clear, Mr. Duke." Grins from both of them. What could Felix possibly be suspected of smuggling, a harmless old thespian like him? It's the words that should concern you, he thinks at them. That's the real danger. Words don't show up on scanners.

She must have heard the door opening and closing in the middle of the night; she produces a smile, warm, conspiratorial, and I know what circuits are closing in her head: by screwing Joe she's brought us back together. Saving the world, everyone wants to; men think they can do it with guns, women with their bodies, love conquers all, conquerors love all, mirages raised by words.

Our time together is drawing short, my reader. Possibly you will view these pages of mine as a fragile treasure box, to be opened with the utmost care. Possibly you will tear them apart, or burn them: that often happens to words.

Not for nothing do we at Ardua Hall say 'Pen Is Envy.'

Bless you. Be careful. Anyone intending to meddle with words needs such blessing, such warning.

Boys by nature require these silences; they must not be startled by too many words, spoken too quickly. What they actually say is not that important. The important parts exist in the silences between the words. I know what we're both looking for, which is escape. They want to escape from adults and other boys, I want to escape from adults and other girls. We're looking for desert islands, momentary, unreal, but there.

The difference between lie and lay . Lay is always passive. Even men used to say, I'd like to get laid. Though sometimes they said, I'd like to lay her. All this is pure speculation. I don't really know what men used to say. I had only their words for it.

The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains.

The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains. Pen Is Envy, Aunt Lydia would say, quoting another Center motto, warning us away from such objects.

Becka said that spelling was not reading. Reading, she said, was when you could hear the words as if they were a song.

The written word is so much like evidence — like something that can be used against you later.

Hang on to the words, he tells himself. The odd words, the old words, the rare ones. Valance. Norn. Serendipity. Pibroch. Lubricious. When they're gone out of his head, these words, they'll be gone, everywhere, forever. As if they had never been.

one of them had been limited to nouns, verbs, and roaring.

All this is pure speculation. I don't really know what men used to say. I had only their words for it.

How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word.

These words are yours, though you never said them, you never heard them, history breeds death but if you kill it you kill yourself.