Quotes about words

She wished her mouth didn't run on ahead of her so much. Her mouth was never any use to her when she needed it.

One of the most succinct commentaries I've come across for encouraging plain talk came from an executive who told his staff, "Don't utilize utilize. Use use."

I try to avoid pompous language. Some people use it as an oral status symbol to impress others. Others use it because they've simply forgotten how to talk in simple, clear, everyday terms. You will be far better off, because you'll be better received and better understood, if you avoid "trendy talk."

A promise is a promise, or as Nightingale put it, “either your word is good or it’s worthless.”

I have heard talk and talk, but nothing is done. Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. … Good words will not give my people good health and stop them from dying. Good words will not get my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves. I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and broken promises. … You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. … I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.

The fallacy of your personal bias is inherent in your choice of words.

"How many men, do you suppose, realise the limitations of using words to convey our meanings? They may find that there are inconvenient misunderstandings, and blame language, but how many admit that the words are just a substitute for the thing they really lack—mental communication? Precious few. My point is that they do not realise the lack of direct mental communication, because they've never had it. They look on spoken or written language as a natural method of expression, whereas it is really a mechanical process [...]"

"Words are seeds, Casiopea. With words you embroider narratives, and the narratives breed myths, and there's power in the myth. Yes, the things you name have power."

“Sometimes I think, because we use the same words, we assume we mean the same thing”

He repeated himself so often that some of what he said seeped into the ears. (p190)

"It's often occurred to me," she said, "that 'friend' is about the most treacherous word in the language."

The answers come pat and fast. You see, what the downsiders want isn’t an explanation; it’s a catchphrase they can use instead of an explanation.

“Professor Lang’s important work, with all due respect, does not answer that question.”

The knife, sliding in hidden behind the compliment. “With all due respect” meant “with no respect at all.”