Quotable Quotes (21 page)

I
T'S A STRANGE WORLD OF LANGUAGE . . .

 

It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water.

—
F
RANKLIN
P
.
J
ONES

in
Quote

 

If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.

—
D
OUG
L
ARSON

 

Words are vehicles that can transport us from the drab sands to the dazzling stars.

—
M
.
R
OBERT
S
YME

 

Words are like diamonds. Polish them too much, and all you get are pebbles.

—
B
RYCE
C
OURTENAY

 

All words are pegs to hang ideas on.

—
H
ENRY
W
ARD
B
EECHER

 

Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.

—
E
LIE
W
IESEL

 

Words without ideas are like sails without wind.

—
Courier-Record
(Blackstone, Virginia)

 

A cliché is only something well said in the first place.

—
B
ILL
G
RANGER

There Are No Spies

 

To “coin a phrase” is to place some value upon it.

—
E
.
H
.
E
VENSON

 

A different language is a different vision of life.

—
F
EDERICO
F
ELLINI

 

Learn a new language and get a new soul.

—
C
ZECH PROVERB

 

He who does not know foreign languages does not know anything about his own.

—
J
OHANN
W
OLFGANG VON
G
OETHE

 

It is often wonderful how putting down on paper a clear statement of a case helps one to see, not perhaps the way out, but the way in.

—
A
.
C
.
B
ENSON

 

In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.

—
M
ARK
T
WAIN

 

Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make more clear.

—
J
OSEPH
J
OUBERT

 

The two words “information” and “communication” are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.

—
S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS

 

Mincing your words makes it easier if you have to eat them later.

—
F
RANKLIN
P
.
J
ONES

 

Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.

—
A
DLAI
S
TEVENSON

 

When a man eats his words, that's recyling.

—
F
RANK
A
.
C
LARK

 

By inflection you can say much more than your words do.

—
M
ALCOLM
S
.
F
ORBES

 

Brevity may be the soul of wit, but not when someone's saying, “I love you.”

—
J
UDITH
V
IORST

 

Words of comfort, skillfully administered, are the oldest therapy known to man.

—
L
OUIS
N
IZER

 

Be careful of your thoughts; they may become words at any moment.

—
I
ARA
G
ASSEN

 

Words, once they're printed, have a life of their own.

—
C
AROL
B
URNETT

 

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.

—
H
ERMANN
H
ESSE

 

If you wouldn't write it and sign it, don't say it.

—
E
ARL
W
ILSON

 

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

—
O
RSON
R
EGA
C
ARD

 

Words are as beautiful as wild horses, and sometimes as difficult to corral.

—
T
ED
B
ERKMAN

in
Christian Science Monitor

 

Look out how you use proud words. When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.

—
C
ARL
S
ANDBURG

Slabs of the Sunburnt West

 

North Americans communicate through buttons, T-shirts and bumper stickers the way some cultures use drums.

—
T
IM
M
C
C
ARTHY

 

A spoken word is not a sparrow. Once it flies out, you can't catch it.

—
R
USSIAN PROVERB

 

If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.

—
R
OBERT
S
OUTHEY

 

You can suffocate a thought by expressing it with too many words.

—
F
RANK
A
.
C
LARK

 

If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought.

—
D
ENNIS
R
OTH

 

Say what you have to say, not what you ought.

—
H
ENRY
D
AVID
T
HOREAU

 

Why doesn't the fellow who says “I'm no speechmaker” let it go at that instead of giving a demonstration?

—
K
IN
H
UBBARD

 

The reason we make a long story short is so that we can tell another.

—
S
HARON
S
HOEMAKER

 

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

—
T
HOMAS
J
EFFERSON

 

It's all right to hold a conversation, but you should let go of it now and then.

—
R
ICHARD
A
RMOUR

 

To base thought only on speech is to try nailing whispers to the wall. Writing freezes thought and offers it up for inspection.

—
J
ACK
R
OSENTHAL

in
New York Times Magazine

 

When the mouth stumbles, it is worse than the foot.

—
W
EST
A
FRICAN PROVERB

 

One way to prevent conversation from being boring is to say the wrong thing.

—
F
RANK
S
HEED

 

The first requirement of good conversation is that nobody should know what is coming next.

—
H
AVILAH
B
ABCOCK

 

Conversation means being able to disagree and still continue the discussion.

—
D
WIGHT
M
AC
D
ONALD

 

Candor is a compliment; it implies equality. It's how true friends talk.

—Peggy Noonan

What I Saw at the Revolution

 

The genius of communication is the ability to be both totally honest and totally kind at the same time.

—
J
OHN
P
OWELL

 

Fine words butter no parsnips.

—
E
NGLISH PROVERB

 

To speak of “mere words” is much like speaking of “mere dynamite.”

—
C
.
J
.
D
UCASSE

in
The Key Reporter

 

Words must surely be counted among the most powerful drugs man ever invented.

—
L
EO
R
OSTEN

 

Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts.

—
R
OBERT
F
ULGHUM

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

 

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.

—
H
ARRIET
B
EECHER
S
TOWE

 

Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?

—
M
ARCEL
M
ARCEAU

 

In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

—
J
OHN
B
UNYAN

 

Sometimes good intentions and feelings are of greater moment than the awkwardness of their expression.

—
J
ONATHAN
Y
ARDLEY

 

Too much agreement kills a chat.

—
E
LDRIDGE
C
LEAVER

Soul on Ice

 

To touch a child's face, a dog's smooth coat, a petaled flower, the rough surface of a rock is to set up new orders of brain motion. To touch is to communicate.

—
J
AMES
W
.
A
NGELL

Yes Is a World

 

What a wonderful thing is the mail, capable of conveying across continents a warm human handclasp.

—Quoted by Ranjan Bakshi

 

A letter is a soliloquy, but a letter with a postscript is a conversation.

—
L
IN
Y
UTANG

 

There is nothing like sealing a letter to inspire a fresh thought.

—
A
L
B
ERNSTEIN

 

It is a damned poor mind indeed that can't think of at least two ways of spelling any word.

—
A
NDREW
J
ACKSON

 

Parents can plant magic in a child's mind through certain words spoken with some thrilling quality of voice, some uplift of the heart and spirit.

—
R
OBERT
M
AC
N
EIL

Wordstruck

 

A pun is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.

—
C
HARLES
L
AMB

 

S
KILLFUL LISTENING IS THE BEST REMEDY 
. . .

 

Skillful listening is the best remedy for loneliness, loquaciousness and laryngitis.

—
W
ILLIAM
A
RTHUR
W
ARD

in
Tribune
(San Diego, California)

 

The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.

—
R
ICHARD
M
OSS,
MD

 

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.

—
J
OYCE
B
ROTHERS

 

There is no greater loan than a sympathetic ear.

—
F
RANK
T
YGER

in
National Enquirer

 

In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

—
S
AMUEL
J
OHNSON

 

The less you talk, the more you're listened to.

—
A
BIGAIL
V
AN
B
UREN

 

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

—
B
ENJAMIN
D
ISRAELI

 

Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.

—
W
ILLIAM
S
HAKESPEARE

 

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.

—Peter F. Drucker

 

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

—
A
NNE
M
ORROW
L
INDBERGH

Gift From the Sea

 

There is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides.

—
J
OHN
S
TUART
M
ILL