Quotes About Words

good haiku are full of overtones. The elusiveness that is one of their chief charms comes, not from haziness, but from the fact that so much suggestion is put into so few words. (Characteristics of Haiku, p. 4)

It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality.

One of Lincoln's intimates as a presidential candidate urged him to make no promises and not to part with those kind words which could be interpreted as promises.

I think it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises - but only performance is reality.

Een boek bestaat alleen uit woorden. En dat is het prachtige ervan. Het is misschien niet gemaakt van de stof waarvan dromen gemaakt zijn, maar wel van iets dat er vlak naast gelegen heeft.

Please wait,' she said in Spanish, then repeated the words, 'Esperen, por favor,' remembering that the single verb meant both to wait and hope. This extraordinary language, she thought.

Decades ago, Rudolph Flesch discovered that readers were not just attracted to words, but to the breathing room between sentences and paragraphs. Long sentences should be followed by short ones, and large paragraphs should be followed by short ones, he decided.

The Horatian Spanish poet Antonio Machado defined poetry as 'a few true words', a definition that sounds minimal, even despairing, until you reflect on what a few true words can do.

After all, every use of language without exception has some, if not all, of the characteristic features of lies.

That's politics, power: it's all verbal, a continuous blizzard of words. But it's not just speaking, it's making statements. It's action; it's doing something without doing anything.

Once I mocked a man for words that I heard him whisper to you. No more. For Callie, I, too, will love you until my dying day!

I enjoy the illusion of a waiting audience. It makes me feel less invisible and irrelevant, and those are maybe the saddest, stupidest words I've ever written.

Your words carry on the air like snow, so think about how big a snowball you want to roll and how bright you want it to be.

Your words seem broken but they are new, as new as the God that made you you.

My conversation is probably something like the rain. On some days it pours, and then on other days there's just a clear sky- not a word in sight.

Math is "maths," an elevator is a "lift," a truck is a "lorry," a flashlight is a "torch," and "crisps" are what they call potato chips, while "chips" over here means French fries. Just as riding the double-decker buses thrills me, I get a thrill out of hearing people talk.

The difficulty is believing what we are told, and my grandmother said that a good prayer depends on the audience. It's all in the clutter of words, this eloquence, the lives before and after transformed into fingerprints, notes of music, the accessories of forgotten civilizations.

If snark could kill, I'd have to register my mouth with the FBI. :)

The only reality was nothingness, and over it a hypocrisy of words.

Music is only love looking for words.

So the realm of strategy is one of bargaining and persuasion as well as threats and pressure, psychological as well as physical effects, and words as well as deeds. This is why strategy is the central political art. It is about getting more out of a situation than the starting balance of power would suggest. It is the art of creating power.

La persuasión exigía utilizar palabras convincentes: de los que saben pero no tienen «el poder para expresarlo claramente», bien se puede decir que no saben nada.

We seek a metaphor for holy words that will return them to us once again as an ayfz hayim, a tree of life (Prov. 3:18). One that yields heightened self-awareness and God's Word. One that permits sustained intellectual inquiry and Scripture's holiness. One that preserves clarity, but not at the expense of mystery. One whose playfulness does not dilute piety. One whose public objectivity tolerates personal intimacy. In the spiritual code words of our generation: a holy text.

Pearl is the only person I ever knew who said things like "paths in life" out loud.