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Words

smallest linguistic element that will be said in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content

In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content (with literal or practical meaning).

When we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose. ~ Thomas Browne
I see more than this, more than I can tell you, More than there are words for... ~ T. S. Eliot

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations · See also · External links

Quotes

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Any concepts or words which have been formed in the past through the interplay between the world and ourselves are not really sharply defined with respect to their meaning: that is to say, we do not know exactly how far they will help us in finding our way in the world. ~ Werner Heisenberg

A

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  • A man of words and not of deeds,
    Is like a garden full of weeds    ...
  • Written words—in samizdat journals too numerous to list, legal independent Catholic journals like Tygodnik Powszechny, Znak, or Wiez, internal university publications, samizdat books from publishers like Krag, Nowa, or cdn, political programs, long and short, moderate and extreme; spoken words—in sermons, hymns, lectures, legal and illegal seminars, worker education groups, theaters, cabaret, unofficial cassettes; audiovisual words—wonderfully funny tapes from the satirist Jacek Fedorowicz, wonderfully serious tapes about Friedrich von Hayek, passed around on the country’s now numerous videocassette recorders; words, words, words.
  • If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.

B

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  • Words are pegs to hang ideas on.
  • When we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose.
    • Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errors, as reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
  • If Shakespeare required a word and had not met it in civilised discourse, he unhesitatingly made it up.
    • Anthony Burgess, A Mouthful of Air: Language and Languages, Especially English (1992).
  • A very great part of the mischiefs that vex this world arises from words.

C

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  • "When I use a word", Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less". "The question is", said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things". "The question is", said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all".
    • Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1934; first published in 1872), chapter 6, p. 205.
  • John Amos Comenius’ foundation principle was that a knowledge of things should precede the study of words; therefore an acquaintance with actual objects, as those of nature, science, and art, should precede the study of dialectics and rhetoric, so that these might not be a mere word-play without substance and meaning.
    • A history of all nations from the earliest times; being a universal historical library P. 71 by Wright, John Henry, 1852-1908 1905
  • Words have the power to release pent-up emotions as well as to define them in rational and meaningful terms.

D

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  • Not only the tools of manual labour, but also the tools of human thought — words — are subject to the laws of historical development. The history of the meanings of words is outside the area of interest of formal logic, and could not be fruitfully studied by the methods of that discipline.
The history of language in what is its most essential content is the history of language as a social instrument of thought; it is historical epistemology which cannot be studied within the scope of any other discipline.
The linguist is of necessity only marginally interested in all conventional terminology, whereas certain votaries of formal logic are inclined to investigate domains which are alien to linguistics and even to some extent in contradiction to its basic assumptions!
  • As long as words a different sense will bear,
    And each may be his own interpreter,
    Our airy faith will no foundation find;
    The word's a weathercock for every wind.
    • John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther (1687), Part I, line 462–465.

E

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  • Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.
  • I see more than this, more than I can tell you, More than there are words for.
    At this moment there is no decision to be made;
    The decision will be made by powers beyond us
    Which now and then emerge.
  • What if my words
    Were meant for deeds.

F

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H

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  • The arrow belongs not to the archer when it has once left the bow; the word no longer belongs to the speaker when it has once passed his lips, especially when it has been multiplied by the press.
  • Words and feathers the wind carries away.
  • Any concepts or words which have been formed in the past through the interplay between the world and ourselves are not really sharply defined with respect to their meaning: that is to say, we do not know exactly how far they will help us in finding our way in the world. We often know that they can be applied to a wide range of inner or outer experience, but we practically never know precisely the limits of their applicability. This is true even of the simplest and most general concepts like "existence" and "space and time". Therefore, it will never be possible by pure reason to arrive at some absolute truth.
    The concepts may, however, be sharply defined with regard to their connections... a group of connected concepts may be applicable to a wide field of experience and will help us to find our way in this field. But the limits of the applicability will in general not be known, at least not completely...
    • Werner Heisenberg, in Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (1958), lectures delivered at University of St. Andrews, Scotland, Winter 1955-56.
  • Words are women, deeds are men.
  • Everything that is thought and expressed in words is one-sided, only half the truth; it all lacks totality, completeness, unity. When the Illustrious Buddha taught about the world, he had to divide it into Samsara and Nirvana, illusion and truth, into suffering and salvation. One cannot do otherwise, there is no other method for those who teach. But the world itself, being in and around us, is never one-sided. Never is a man or a deed wholly Samsara or wholly Nirvana; never is a man wholly a saint or a sinner. This only seems so because we suffer the illusion that time is something real.
  • Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another.
  • A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.
  • Tristia mæstum
    Vultum verba decent; iratum, plena minarum;
    Ludentem, lasciva; severum, seria dictu.
    • Sorrowful words become the sorrowful; angry words suit the passionate; light words a playful expression; serious words suit the grave.
    • Horace, Ars Poetica (18 BC), 105.
  • Delere licebit
    Quod non edideris; nescit vox missa reverti.
    • It will be practicable to blot written words which you do not publish; but the spoken word it is not possible to recall.
    • Horace, Ars Poetica (18 BC), 389. Epistles. I. 18. 71.
  • Words are good servants but bad masters.
    • Aldous Huxley, as reported by Laura Huxley, in conversation with Alan Watts, about This Timeless Moment, in Pacifica Archives #BB2037

I

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  • For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

J

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  • In every word of extenſive uſe, it was requiſite to mark the progreſs of its meaning, and ſhow by what gradations of intermediate ſenſe, it has paſſed from its primitive to its remote and accidental ſignification ; ſo that every foregoing explanation ſhould tend to that which follows, and the ſeries be regularly concantenated from the firſt notion to the laſt.

K

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  • Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking.

L

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  • ... we English people delight in a moral — not a moral to be deduced or inferred, but a nice, rounded, little moral, in all the starch of set sentences, and placed just at the end.
  • 'Tis a strange mystery, the power of words !
    Life is in them, and death. A word can send
    The crimson colour hurrying to the cheek,
    Hurrying with many meanings; or can turn
    The current cold and deadly to the heart.
    Anger and fear are in them ; grief and joy
    Are on their sound ; yet slight, impalpable:—
    A word is but a breath of passing air.

M

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  • Without approval and without scorn, but carefully studying the sentences word by word, one should trace them in the Discourses (Sutta) and verify them by the Discipline (Vinaya). If they are neither traceable in the Discourses nor verifiable by the Discipline, one must conclude thus: ‘Certainly, this is not the Blessed One’s utterance; this has been misunderstood by that bhikkhu — or by that community, or by those elders, or by that elder.’ In that way, bhikkhus, you should reject it.
  • Mahaparinibbana Sutta Translated from the Pali by Sister Vajira & Francis Story (1998). Last Days of the Buddha: The Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (2nd rev. ed.). Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society. p. 48. ISBN 9559219987.
  • Every word carries its own surprises and offers its own rewards to the reflective mind. Their amazing variety is a constant delight. I do not believe that I am alone in this—a fascination with words is shared by people in all countries and all walks of life.
  • Yet hold it more humane, more heav'nly, first,
    By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
    And make persuasion do the work of fear.
  • A word may denote to an advocate something which he wishes an audience to understand; yet it may have connotations which will produce an antagonistic impression. The result is ambiguity leading to misunderstanding of meaning.

P

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  • For the word of God is alive and exerts power and is sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of joints and [their] marrow, and [is] able to discern thoughts and intentions of [the] heart. 13 And there is not a creation that is not manifest to his sight, but all things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with whom we have an accounting.
  • There is something indecent in words.
  • I’ve touched some sentences
    and have kissed some words.
  • "Strength of creative writing lies in the skill of handling words and articulating artistic expression of feelings.”
    • Suman Pokhrel, Tales of Transformation: English Translation of Tagore's Chitrangada and Chandalika by Lopamudra Banerjee, (2018) Foreword.
  • "In influencing write-ups, words seem to move despite residing still on paper.”
    • Suman Pokhrel, Tales of Transformation: English Translation of Tagore's Chitrangada and Chandalika by Lopamudra Banerjee, (2018) Foreword.
  • “In many a situation, the images that words hide while walking forth are the desired meaning of particular words rather than the word itself. Those words sing and dance by coming out of the paper.”
    • Suman Pokhrel, Tales of Transformation: English Translation of Tagore's Chitrangada and Chandalika by Lopamudra Banerjee, (2018) Foreword.
  • “Language is texture of images and music. We speak in images and rhythm, by taking help of words.”
    • Suman Pokhrel, Tales of Transformation: English Translation of Tagore's Chitrangada and Chandalika by Lopamudra Banerjee, (2018) Foreword.
  • In Words, as Fashions, the same Rule will hold;
    Alike Fantastick, if too New, or Old;
    Be not the first by whom the New are try'd,
    Nor yet the last to lay the Old aside.
  • We can judge the intent of the parties only by their words.
  • A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
    • Proverbs 15:1, New International Version
  • I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue; I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

R

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  • Judas: I remember when this whole thing began
    No talk of God then, we called you a man
    And believe me, my admiration for you hasn't died.
    But every word you say today
    Gets twisted round some other way
    And they'll hurt if they think you've lied.
  • The mastery of longer-syllabled words in the English language is no doubt admirable but it is not equivalent to thinking. And I do believe that thinking is an overrated medium for achieving thought.
    • Sarah Ruhl, "Plays of Ideas," 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write (2014)

S

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  • Never believe that anti‐Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti‐Semites have the right to play.
  • My father still reads the dictionary everyday. He says your life depends on your ability to master words.
  • Syllables govern the world.
  • What art thou? Have not I
    An arm as big as thine? a heart as big?
    Thy words, I grant, are bigger, for I wear
    My dagger in my mouth.
  • Unpack my heart with words
    And fall a-cursing, like a very drab.
  • My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
    Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
  • But yesterday the word of Cæsar might
    Have stood against the world; now lies he there,
    And none so poor to do him reverence.
  • Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words
    Since I first call'd my brother's father dad.
  • O they have lived long on the alms-basket of words. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon.
    • William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1595-6), Act V, scene 1, line 42. The word appears in Beaumont and Fletcher—Mad Lover, Act I. Also in Complaynt of Scotland, written before Shakespeare was born.
  • But words are words; I never yet did hear
    That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the ear.
  • I know thou'rt full of love and honesty,
    And weigh'st thy words before thou givest them breath.
  • How long a time lies in one little word!
    Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
    End in a word: such is the breath of kings.
  • O, but they say the tongues of dying men
    Enforce attention like deep harmony:
    Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain,
    For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.
    He that no more must say is listen'd more.
  • Words are but holy as the deeds they cover.

T

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  • Words that warmed women, wooed and won them, snipped the final thread of inhibition and gratified the male egos of ungrateful lovers; ... for which they were eternally in his debt, for which they may eternally hate him.
  • For some queer and deplorable reason most human beings are more impressed by words than by figures, to the great disadvantage of mankind.
    • Jan Tinbergen. "The necessity of quantitative social research." Sankhyā: The Indian Journal of Statistics, Series B (1973): 141-148.
  • A word is no more than a means to an end. Its an abstraction. Not unlike a signpost, it points beyond itself. The word honey isn't honey. You can study and talk about honey for as long as you like, but you won' t really know it until you taste it. After you have tasted it, the word becomes less important to you. You won't be attached to it anymore. Similarly, you can talk or think about God continuously for the rest of your life, but does that mean you know or have even glimpsed the reality to which the word points?
  • The reverse also applies: If, for whatever reason, you disliked the word honey, that might prevent you from ever tasting it. If you had a strong aversion to the word God, which is a negative form of attachment, you may be denying not just the word but also the reality to which it points. You would be cutting yourself off from the possibility of experiencing that reality. All this is, of course, intrinsically connected with being identified with your mind.So, if a word doesn't work for you anymore, then drop it and replace it with one that does work. If you don't like the word sin, then call it unconsciousness or insanity. That may get you closer to the truth, the reality behind the word, than a long-misused word like sin, and leaves little room for guilt.
  • The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.
    • Mark Twain, letter to George Bainton, 15 October 1888, solicited for and printed in George Bainton, The Art of Authorship: Literary Reminiscences, Methods of Work, and Advice to Young Beginners (1890), pp. 87–88. (Twain adapts a metaphor due to Josh Billings, from Josh Billings' Old Farmer's Allminax, "January 1871").
  • Words realize nothing, vivify nothing to you, unless you have suffered in your own person the thing which the words try to describe.
    • Mark Twain A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) Ch. 28.

V

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[A]nybody who has served in combat in any way understands that words are weapons. And I'm in a war. The war hasn't stopped. I've always used the books as a blunt instrument. ~ Andrew Vachss
  • Dat inania verba,
    Dat sine mente sonum.
    • He utters empty words, he utters sound without mind.
    • Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), 10. 639.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

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Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 902-07.
  • Words of truth and soberness.
    • Acts, XXVI. 25.
  • Words, as a Tartar's bow, do shoot back upon the understanding of the wisest, and mightily entangle and pervert the judgment.
  • Words of affection, howsoe'er express'd,
    The latest spoken still are deem'd the best.
    • Joanna Baillie, Address to Miss Agnes Baillie on her Birthday, line 126.
  • 'Twas he that ranged the words at random flung,
    Pierced the fair pearls and them together strung.
    • Bidpai (Pilpay), Anvar-i Suhaili, Eastwick's translation.
  • You have only, when before your glass, to keep pronouncing to yourself nimini-pimini; the lips cannot help taking their plie.
  • Boys flying kites haul in their white winged birds;
    You can't do that way when you're flying words.
    "Careful with fire," is good advice we know
    "Careful with words," is ten times doubly so.
    Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead;
    But God Himself can't kill them when they're said.
  • High Air-castles are cunningly built of Words, the Words well bedded also in good Logic-mortar; wherein, however, no Knowledge will come to lodge.
  • The Moral is that gardeners pine,
    Whene'er no pods adorn the vine.
    Of all sad words experience gleans,
    The saddest are: "It might have beans."
    (I did not make this up myself:
    'Twas in a book upon my shelf.
    It's witty, but I don't deny
    It's rather Whittier than I).
  • Words writ in waters.
  • Fair words butter no parsnips.
    • Clarke, Parœmiologia, p. 12 (Ed. 1639). Quoted "soft words".
  • Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men.
  • Words that weep, and tears that speak.
  • Father is rather vulgar, my dear. The word Papa, besides, gives a pretty form to the lips. Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism are all very good words for the lips; especially prunes and prism.
  • But words once spoke can never be recall'd.
  • It used to be a common saying of Myson's that men ought not to seek for things in words, but for words in things; for that things are not made on account of words but that words are put together for the sake of things.
  • I trade both with the living and the dead for the enrichment of our native language.
  • And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.
  • Let thy words be few.
    • Ecclesiastes. V. 2.
  • Let no man deceive you with vain words.
    • Ephesians. V. 6.
  • An undisputed power
    Of coining money from the rugged ore,
    Nor less of coining words, is still confessed,
    If with a legal public stamp impressed.
  • New words and lately made shall credit claim
    If from a Grecian source they gently stream.
  • That blessed word Mesopotamia.
    • Garrick tells of the power of George Whitefield's voice, "he could make men either laugh or cry by pronouncing the word Mesopotamia." Related by Francis Jacox. An old woman said she found great support in that comfortable word Mesopotamia. See Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
  • Der Worte sind genug gewechselt,
    Lasst mich auch endlich Thaten sehn.
  • Gewöhnlich glaubt der Mensch, wenn er nur Worte hört,
    Es müsse sich dabei doch auch was denken.
  • Es macht das Volk sich auch mit Worten Lust.
  • At this every lady drew up her mouth as if going to pronounce the letter P.
  • If of all words of tongue and pen,
    The saddest are, "It might have been,"
    More sad are these we daily see,
    "It is, but it hadn't ought to be."
  • For words are wise men's counters—they do but reckon by them—but they are the money of fools.
  • Words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book I, line 332. Pope's translation.
  • Winged words.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book XX. 331. Pope's translation.
  • Words are the soul's ambassadors, who go
    Abroad upon her errands to and fro.
  • How forcible are right words!
    • Job, VI. 25.
  • Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
    • Job, XXXVIII. 2.
  • I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.
    • Samuel Johnson, Preface to his Dictionary. Sir William Jones quotes the saying as proverbial in India ("deeds" for "sons"). Same used by Sir Thomas Bodley—Letter to his Librarian. (1604).
  • To make dictionaries is dull work.
  • Like orient pearls at random strung.
  • The masterless man … afflicted with the magic of the necessary words…. Words that may become alive and walk up and down in the hearts of the hearers.
  • We might have been—these are but common words,
    And yet they make the sum of life's bewailing.
  • We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.
    • John Locke, Essay on the Human Understanding, III. 10.
  • Speaking words of endearment where words of comfort availed not.
  • My words are little jars
    For you to take and put upon a shelf.
    Their shapes are quaint and beautiful,
    And they have many pleasant colours and lustres
    To recommend them.
    Also the scent from them fills the room
    With sweetness of flowers and crushed grasses.
  • There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one,
    Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on.
  • Ein Wörtlein kann ihn fällen.
    • A single little word can strike him dead.
    • Martin Luther. (Of the Pope).
  • Some grave their wrongs on marble; He, more just,
    Stooped down serene, and wrote them in the dust.
  • Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.
    • Samuel Madden, Boulter's Monument. Said to have been inserted by Dr. Johnson.
  • Words that weep, and strains that agonise.
  • Strains that sigh and words that weep.
  • It is as easy to draw back a stone thrown with force from the hand, as to recall a word once spoken.
  • Words, however, are things; and the man who accords
    To his language the license to outrage his soul,
    Is controll'd by the words he disdains to control.
    • Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton), Lucile (1860), Part I, Canto II, Stanza VI.
  • How many honest words have suffered corruption since Chaucer's days!
  • His words, * * * like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command.
  • And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one.
  • How many quarrels, and how important, has the doubt as to the meaning of this syllable "Hoc" produced for the world!
    • Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book II, Chapter XII. (Referring to the controversies on transubstantiation—"Hoc est corpus meum").
  • Words repeated again have as another sound, so another sense.
  • So spake those wary foes, fair friends in look,
    And so in words great gifts they gave and took,
    And had small profit, and small loss thereby.
  • The word impossible is not in my dictionary.
  • Things were first made, then words.
  • Hei mihi, quam facile est (quamvis hic contigit omnes),
    Alterius lucta fortia verba loqui!
    • Ah me! how easy it is (how much all have experienced it) to indulge in brave words in another person's trouble.
    • Ovid, Ad Liviam, 9.
  • Non opus est verbis, credite rebus.
    • There is no need of words; believe facts.
    • Ovid, Fasti, II. 734.
  • Le monde se paye de paroles; peu approfondissement les choses.
    • The world is satisfied with words. Few appreciate the things beneath.
    • Blaise Pascal, Lettres Provinciales, II.
  • In pertusum ingerimus dicta dolium, operam ludimus.
    • We are pouring our words into a sieve, and lose our labor.
    • Plautus, Pseudolus, I. 3. 135.
  • Words will build no walls.
    • Plutarch, Life of Pericles. Cratinus ridiculed the long wall Pericles proposed to build.
  • Each word-catcher, that lives on syllables.
  • They say * * *
    That, putting all his words together,
    'Tis three blue beans in one blue bladder.
  • A word spoken in good season, how good is it!
    • Proverbs, XV. 23.
  • A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
    • Proverbs, XXV. 11.
  • The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.
    • Psalms. LV. 21.
  • Inanis verborum torrens.
    • An unmeaning torrent of words.
    • Quintilian. 10, 7, 23.
  • Souvent d'un grand dessein un mot nous fait juger.
    • A single word often betrays a great design.
    • Jean Racine, Athalie, II. 6.
  • He that useth many words for the explaining any subject, doth, like the cuttle fish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink.
  • One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called "weasel words." When a weasel sucks eggs the meat is sucked out of the egg. If you use a "weasel word" after another there is nothing left of the other.
    • Theodore Roosevelt, speech at St. Louis (May 31, 1916). "Weasel word" taken from a story by Stewart Chaplin in Century Magazine, June, 1900.
  • Satis eloquentiæ sapientiæ parum.
    • Enough words, little wisdom.
    • Sallust, Catilina, V.
  • Schnell fertig ist die Jugend mit dem Wort.
  • O! many a shaft, at random sent,
    Finds mark the archer little meant!
    And many a word, at random spoken,
    May soothe or wound a heart that's broken!
  • But from sharp words and wits men pluck no fruit;
    And gathering thorns they shake the tree at root;
    For words divide and rend,
    But silence is most noble till the end.
  • I have not skill
    From such a sharp and waspish word as "No"
    To pluck the sting.
  • I sometimes hold it half a sin
    To put in words the grief I feel;
    For words, like Nature, half reveal
    And half conceal the Soul within.
    * * * * *
    In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er,
    Like coarsest clothes against the cold;
    But that large grief which these enfold
    Is given in outline and no more.
  • Dictum sapienti sat est.
    • A word to the wise is sufficient.
    • Terence, Phormio, III. 3. 8. Plautus, Persa, Act IV, scene 7. Generally quoted "verbum sapienti satis est".
  • As the last bell struck, a peculiar sweet smile shone over his face, and he lifted up his head a little, and quickly said, "Adsum!" and fell back. It was the word we used at school, when names were called; and lo, he, whose heart was as that of a little child, had answered to his name, and stood in the presence of The Master.
  • Deep in my heart subsides the infrequent word,
    And there dies slowly throbbing like a wounded bird.
  • Hold fast the form of sound words.
    • II Timothy. I. 13.
  • You [Pindar] who possessed the talent of speaking much without saying anything.
    • Voltaire, Sur la Carrousel de l'Impératrice de Russie.
  • You phrase tormenting fantastic chorus,
    With strangest words at your beck and call.
  • For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
    The saddest are these: "It might have been!"
  • Would you repeat that again, sir, for it soun's sae sonorous that the words droon the ideas?
  • Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on,
    Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.
  • Fair words enough a man shall find,
    They be good cheap: they cost right nought,
    Their substance is but only wind.
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Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 250-251.
  • There is no magic in words.
    • Lord Kenyon, King v. Inhabitants of North Nibley (1792), 5 T. R. 24; Lord Romilly, Lord v. Jeffkins (1865), 35 Beav. 16.
  • Most of the disputes in the world arise from words.
    • Lord Mansfield, Morgan v. Jones (1773), Lofft. 177; Vide "Essay on Human Understanding," c. 9,10,11.
  • Rather commend yourself by your actions, than your expressions; one good action is worth twenty good expressions.
    • Jefferies, C .J., Braddon and Speke's Case (1684), 9 How. St. Tr. 1185.
  • Words pass from men lightly.
    • Plowden, 308 b.; quoted by Wilmot, J., Pillans v. Van Mierop (1764), 3 Burr. Part IV. 1671.
  • The words are like Jack in a Box, and nobody knows what to make of them.
    • Roll, C.J., Parker v. Cook (1650), Style's Rep. 241.
  • Is not the Judge bound to know the meaning of all words in the English language; or if they are used technically or scientifically, to inform his own mind by evidence, and then to determine the meaning?
    • Martin, B., Hills v. The London Gaslight Co. (1857), 27 L. J. Ex. 63.
  • Qiue ad unumfinem loqunta sunt, non debent ad alium detorqueri: Those words which are spoken to one end, ought not to be perverted to another.
    • 4 Co. 14.
  • Nay, gentlemen, do not quarrel about words.
    • Wright, L.C.J., Trial of the Seven Bishops (1688), 12 How. St. Tr. 208.
  • He says one thing, but he does another; it seems to me to be common sense to look at what is done, and not to what is said.
    • Martin, B., Caine v. Coulson (1863), 1 H. & C. 764; 32 L. J. Ex. 97.
  • We must judge of men's intentions by their acts, and not by expressions in letters, which are contrary to their acts.
    • Lord Abinger, Chapman v. Morton (1843), 11 M. & W. 534.
  • Words are transient, and vanish in the air as soon as spoken, and there can be no tenor of them . . . but when a thing is written, though every omission of a letter may not make a variance, yet, if such omission makes a word of another signification, it is fatal.
    • Holt, C.J., Queen v. Drake (1706), 3 Salkeld, 225.

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