Words

Words of love, are works of love.
~ William Rounseville (W.R.) Alger

Words get their point and meaning almost entirely from the time, place, circumstances, and intent with which they are used. The same word may have different meanings even in the same sentence.
~ William Caldwell Anderson, A Dictionary Of Law (1893).

Words once printed assume a life of their own.
~ Wilma Askinas

It is easy to laugh at men's ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word.
~ William Barclay, Letter to the Hebrews (1955).

I suggest . . . the term Genetics, which sufficiently indicates that our labours are devoted to the elucidation of the phenomena of heredity and variation.
~ William Bateson, Address to the Third Conference on Hybridisation (1906)

Word of mouth is the best medium of all.
~ Bill Bernbach, Bill Bernbach said . . . (1989).

The sweetest sounds to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.
~ William Goldsmith Brown, Mother, Home, Heaven.

To catch thy gaze, and uttering graceful words
To charm thy ear.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from The Fountain, and Other Poems (1842). The Antiquity of Freedom

Gentle Reader, The Word will leap on you with leopard man iron claws, it will cut off fingers and toes like an opportunity land crab, it will coil round your thighs like a bushmaster and inject a shot glass of rancid ectoplasm.
~ William S. Burroughs, The Naked Lunch (1959).

My general theory since 1971 has been that the word is literally a virus, and that it has not been recognised as such because it has achieved a state of relatively stable symbiosis with its human host; that is to say, the word virus (the Other Half) has established itself so firmly as an accepted part of the human organism that it can now sneer at gangster viruses like smallpox and turn them in to the Pasteur Institute.
~ William S. Burroughs, The Adding Machine (1985). Ten Years and a Billion Dollars

I think the next step will have to be beyond the word. The word is now an outmoded artifact.
~ William S. Burroughs, in The Job: Interviews With William S. Burroughs (1969). Prisoners of the Earth Come Out

We must find out what words are and how they function. They become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not of the image of the thing itself.
~ William S. Burroughs

"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!
~ William McKendree ("Will") Carleton, from Farm Festivals (1881). The Festival Of Reminiscence; Or, The Pioneer Meeting. II. The First Settler's Story

Give the people a new word and they think they have a new fact.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, from Willa Cather On Writing (1949). Four Letters: Escapism (first published in "Commonweal"; 17 April 1936)

But don't blame me if some of these neologisms have hit the lexical dumpster even as you read them. Such is the nature of neology. . . . For words are the living tissue of any language. Just like our skin cells, words have a life, wear out, and slough off. Then new verbal tissue takes their place.
~ Bill Casselman, Casselman's Canadian Words (1995).

Words and idioms are as indispensable to our thoughts and experiences as are colors and tints to a painting.
~ William Chomsky, Hebrew: The Eternal Language (1957).

Strength must be found in the thought, or, it will never be found in the words. Big-sounding words, without thoughts corresponding, are effort without effect.
~ William Cobbett, A Grammar of the English Language, in a Series of Letters (1818). Letter XVIII. Syntax, As Relating to Adjectives

Most words are dispensable. They can perish as though they had never been written or spoken. Some few, however, must forever remain alive if human beings are to remain human.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., Speech in Boston (16 October 1967).

It means treasury, but it is just a place
where words congregate with their relatives,
a big park where hundreds of family reunions
are always being held.
~ Billy Collins, The Art of Drowning (1995). Thesaurus

Words like feminism or democracy scare me. They are words with barnacles on them, and you can't see what's underneath.
~ Billy Collins, in The New York Times (30 November 1997).

I have been made redundant before and it is a terrible blow; redundant is a rotten word because it makes you think you are useless.
~ Billy Connolly, Quoted in Ananova Ltd (11 July 2001). Ex-shipyard worker Connolly attacks job losses

Words learned by rote a parrot may rehearse,
But talking is not always to converse.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Conversation

The trouble with the dictionary is that you have to know how a word is spelled before you can look it up to see how it is spelled.
~ Will (William Jacob) Cuppy, in How To Get From January To December (1951).

A mugwump is a fellow with his mug on one side of the fence and his wump on the other.
~ Harold Willis Dodds

The words "ordinary and necessary" are not so clear and unambiguous in their meaning and application as to leave no room for an interpretative regulation.
~ William Orville Douglas, Textile Mills Sec. Corp. v. C.I.R., 314 U.S. 326 (1941)

The all-important word to the engineer is why, and it is astonishing how few people in the ordinary pursuits of human affairs ever think it worthwhile to trouble themselves about that question, or to make much effort to find out whether the answer suggested will bear analysis.
~ William LeRoy Emmet, The Autobiography of an Engineer (1931).

He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn't need a word for that anymore than for pride or fear.
~ William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930).

I have found that the greatest help in meeting any problem is to know where you yourself stand. That is, to have in words what you believe and are acting from.
~ William Faulkner

[S]in and love and fear are just sounds that people who never sinned nor loved nor feared have for what they never had and cannot have until they forgot the words . . .
~ William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930).

What is perhaps most ironic and extraordinary about our current sense of democracy . . . is how its constituent words: freedom, choice, equality, and rights, are used to defend the blatantly contradictory notions of individualism and collectivism simultaneously. Although many Canadians died defending the former against the latter, we now embrace both with an equal fondness.
~ William D. Gairdner, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (25 June 2001). Commentary

Discipline? I don't know the meaning of the word.
~ Liam Gallagher

Words are but the signs of ideas.
~ William Lloyd Garrison, Selections from the Writings and Speeches of William Lloyd Garrison (1852). Harsh Language -- Regarding the Cause

One's complete sentences are attempts, as often as not, to complete an incomplete self with words.
~ William H. Gass, Interview in The Paris Review, Issue 70 (Summer 1977). The Art of Fiction No. 65

Words are the supreme objects. They are minded things.
~ William H. Gass, Interview in The Paris Review, Issue 70 (Summer 1977). The Art of Fiction No. 65

I never tried to break their spirits and so I did not use brutality. To train my animals I used words, always words.
~ Gunther Gebel-Williams, in The New York Times (20 July 2001). Gunther Gebel-Williams, Circus Animal Trainer, Dies at 66

My dear chap! Good isn't the word!
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert

Some word that teems with hidden meaning. . . .
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, Ruddigore (1887 opera).

Words may, through the devotion, the skill, the passion, and the luck of writers prove to be the most powerful thing in the world.
~ William Golding, Nobel Lecture (7 December 1983).

If facts be nature's words, our words should be true signs of nature's facts. A word rightly imposed is a landmark indicating so much recovered from the region of ignorance.
~ William Withey Gull, in A Collection of the Published Writings of William Withey Gull, Volume 156 (1896). Memoir and Addresses; Study of Medicine

Man's words will not break thy bones.
~ William Gurnall, The Christian In Complete Armour (1665).

The spoken word can supplement the written word: it cannot supplant the written word.
~ Sir William John Haley, Address to Radio Industries Club (28 November 1944).

Words are the fortresses of thought.
~ Sir William Hamilton, from Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1858-60). Vol. II Logic (1833)

I conceive that words are like money, not the worse for being common, but that it is the stamp of custom alone that gives them circulation or value.
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk, or Original Essays on Men and Manners, 2nd series (1824). On Familiar Style

Words are the only things that last for ever.
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk; or, Original Essays (1821-1822). On Thought and Action

And the word spread of Billy the Kid.
~ Billy Joel, in Piano Man (1973 album). The Ballad of Billy the Kid

Some words are like the old Roman galleys; large-scaled and ponderous. They sit low in the water even when their cargo is light.
~ William Jovanovich

Conceal your art, and let your words appear
Common, not vulgar; not too plain, though clear.
~ William King, The Art of Love: In Imitation of Ovid de Arte Amandi (1709). Part V.

The same sentence can never produce exactly the same effect on two persons, and the first quick impressions that any given word in it may convey will in two minds widely differ.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from A Writer's Notebook (1949). 1901 entry

Words have weight, sound and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up (1938).

[W]ords should be used not only to balance a sentence but to balance an idea.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up (1938).

The biggest clichés often hide deep truths in plain view, and this is one of those cases. We've said so often that the world is speeding up that it's become a truism, a commonplace. But it is the central fact or our time. We live in an era of exponential growth.
~ Bill McKibben, Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age (2003).

Words addresssing evil won't turn evil back
but they can give heart.
The cheer is hidden in right words.
~ William Morris Meredith, Jr., from The Cheer (1980). The Cheer

Every word is a prejudice.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human. Second Sequel: The Wanderer and His Shadow (December 1879).

A student never forgets an encouraging private word, when it is given with sincere respect and admiration.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps

A definition is no proof.
~ William Pinkney, Speech in the U.S. Senate on the Missouri Question (15 February 1820).

And most wonderful of all are words, and how they make friends one with another.
~ William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), from Whirligigs (1910). Calloway's Code

This is what you typically do. You talk all the time. You never let anybody else get a word in. And then you throw out these things which are simply not true.
~ Bill Press, FoxNews Channel The O'Reilly Factor (29 November 2001). Personal Story: Bill Press

Maybe ain't ain't so correct, but I notice that lots of folks who ain't using ain't ain't eating.
~ Will Rogers

He can take a batch of words and scramble them together and leaven them properly with a hunk of oratory and knock the White House door-knob right out of a candidate's hand.
~ Will Rogers (on William Jennings Bryan).

It is not difficult to learn the correct use of such words as "complex," "sadism," "Oedipus," "bourgeois," "deviation," "left"; and nothing more is needed to make a brilliant writer or talker.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell, from Unpopular Essays (1950). VI: On Being Modern-Minded

To communicate, put your words in order; give them a purpose; use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce.
~ William L. Safire

Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
~ William L. Safire, Great Rules of Writing

A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.
~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona

A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind,
Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind.
~ William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors. Act III, scene i

A rhapsody of words.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act III, scene iv

And 'tis a kind of good deed to say well;
And yet words are no deeds.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII. Act III, scene ii

But words are words; I never yet did hear
That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello

Cuckoo, cuckoo; O, word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
~ William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost

Good words are better than bad strokes.
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. Act V, scene i

He words me, girls, he words me.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words
That ever blotted paper!
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

How long a time lies in one little word!
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Let me have audience for a word or two.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act V, scene iv

Men of few words are the best men.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V. Act III, scene ii

No word to save thee.
~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. Act III, scene i

Shall quips, and sentences, and these paper bullets of the brain, awe a man from the career of his humor? No; the world must be peopled.
~ William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing. Act II, scene iii

Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.
~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act II, scene iv

So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 76

The proverb is something musty.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act III, scene ii

The world is but a word.
Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!
~ William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens. Act II, scene ii

These words are razors to my wounded heart.
~ William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus. Act I, scene i

Whose words all ears took captive.
~ William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well

[W]ords do well
When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act III, scene v

Words pay no debts.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida

You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave.
~ William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well

Zounds! I was never so bethumped with words
Since I first called my brother's father dad.
~ William Shakespeare, King John

The word Folly is perhaps the prettiest word in the language.
~ William Shenstone, from Works in Verse and Prose (1764). Essays on Men and Manners. Of Men and Manners

It sounds like a made-up word, but it's a real word. It goes back to the 18th century. Originally, it meant the study of riddles and enigmas.
~ Will Shortz (on enigmatology), CBS TV "60 Minutes" (2003). The New York Times' Master Puzzler

Where words come from, into consciousness, baffles me. Speaking or writing, the words bounce instantaneously into their context, and I am victimized by them, rather than controlling them. They do not wait for my selection; they volunteer.
~ William Stafford, from Writing the Australian Crawl (1978). Some Arguments Against Good Diction

You don't need many words if you already know what you're talking about.
~ William Stafford, The Darkness Around Us is Deep (1993). By a River in the Osage Country

If you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!
~ William Strunk, Jr.

Omit needless words.
~ William Strunk, Jr.

Proclaim the Word and argue about it less.
~ William Cameron Townsend

Profanity is the use of strong words by weak people.
~ William Arthur Ward, from Thoughts of a Christian Optimist: The Words of William Arthur Ward (1968).

Each word may not unfitly be compared to an invention.
~ William Dwight Whitney, The Life and Growth of Language: An Outline of Linguistic Science (1875). Nature and Origin of Language

Boil your story down. Never use two words when one will do.
~ William Allen White

Philology: the generally accepted comprehensive name for the study of the word (Greek, logos), or languages; it designates that branch of knowledge which deals with human speech, and with all that speech discloses as to the nature and history of man.
~ William Dwight Whitney, in Encyclopedia Brittanica (1926 edition).

Say you are well, or all is well with you,
And God shall hear your words and make them true.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). Speech

When love, health, happiness, and plenty hear
Their names repeated over day by day,
They wing their way like answering fairies near,
Then nestle down within our homes to stay.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). Words

You may choose your word like a connoiseur,
And polish it up with art,
But the word that sways, and stirs, and stays,
Is the word that comes from the heart.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from New Thought Pastels (1906). The Word

We've all kinds of kinds of hells and damns in country. But we don't have that other. We haven't progressed that far yet or degenerated. Who knows? . . . There are a few that are trying it. It's true. Some of these guys say it 500 times. I said (to Kid Rock), "how many times do you say it on an album -- 500 times? He just has that little grin."
~ Hank Williams, Jr. (on "the F Word"), in Country Standard Times (Interview; February 2002). Hank Jr. finds his roots

The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It's inflammatory.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Camino Real (1953).

The knowledge of Words is the Gate of Scholarship.
~ John Wilson, Dies Boreales: Or Christopher Under Canvass (1850).

Shame if the consecrated Vow be found
An idle form, the Word an empty sound!
~ William Wordsworth, from Ecclesiastical Sonnets. In Series (1821-22), Part III. XXI: Sponsors

Why call upon a few weak words to say
What is already written in the hearts
Of all that breathe?
~ William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805). Book V: Books

Thou senseless, impertinent, quibbling, drivelling, feeble, paralytic, impotent, fumbling, frigid nincompoop!
~ William Wycherley, The Plain Dealer (1674). Act II, scene i

Our words must seem to be inevitable.
~ William Butler Yeats, in Letters on Poetry from W. B. Yeats to Dorothy Wellesley (1940). Letter of 3 May 1936

Words alone are certain good.
~ William Butler Yeats, from Crossways (1889). The Song of the Happy Shepherd

Words are always getting conventionalized to some secondary meaning. It is one of the works of poetry to take the truants in custody and bring them back to their right senses.
~ William Butler Yeats, (1889)

Beware of all the slippery new fad words: paradigm and parameter, prioritize and potentialize. They are all weeds that will smother what you write.
~ William K. Zinsser, On Writing Well (1976). 3. Clutter

Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.
~ William K. Zinsser, On Writing Well (1976). 3. Clutter

There is no minimum length for a sentence that's acceptable in the eyes of God.
~ William K. Zinsser, On Writing Well (1976). 10. Bits & Pieces