Favorite Quotations About Words

#1: Words Become Superfluous

“A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop speech when words become superfluous.” (Ingrid Bergman)

#2: Long Words

“'Well,' said Owl, 'the customary procedure in such cases is as follows.'

'What does Crustimoney Proseedcake mean?' said Pooh. 'For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me.'
'It means the Thing to Do.'
'As long as it means that, I don't mind,' said Pooh humbly.'”  (A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926)

#3: Limits of My Language

“The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.” (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 1953)

#4: Wit

“Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.” (Dorothy Parker, interview in Paris Review, 1956)

#5: The Smallest Ideas

“He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.”  (Abraham Lincoln, quoted in Frederick Trevor Hill's Lincoln the Lawyer, 1906)

#6: Invisible Ink

“The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words all being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.”  (Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Literature, 1980)

#7: Clear Language

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.” (George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946)

#8: Nouns and Verbs

“Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.” - William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style, 1959 (A variation of this idea: "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, 2000.)

#9: Rush-Hour Trafic

“For there is no doubt that I have lots of words inside me; but at moments, like rush-hour traffic at the mouth of a tunnel, they jam.”  (John Updike, Self-Consciousness, 1989)

#10: Lightning

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” (Mark Twain, 1888)

#11: Art of Conversation

“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” (Dorothy Nevill)

#12: Glint of Light

“Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
– A widely circulated paraphrase of advice from Russian writer Anton Chekhov

#13: Drowning

“When you're drowning you don't think, I would be incredibly pleased if someone would notice I'm drowning and come and rescue me. You just scream.” (John Lennon)

#14: Beautiful Words 

“Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” (Henry James, quoted by Edith Wharton in her autobiography A Backward Glance)

#15: A Little Wild

“Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.” (John Maynard Keynes)

#16: The Right Place

“No iron can pierce a heart with such force as a period put just at the right place.” (Isaac Babel, from his short story Guy de Maupassant)

#17: Too Big 

“Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very;' otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” (C.S. Lewis in Letters to Children) 

#18: Speak Well Enough
“I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.” (Catherine Morland, in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey)

#19: Shortest Words

“The oldest, shortest words – 'yes' and 'no' – are those which require the most thought.” (Attributed to the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras)

#20: Truth
“The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.”  (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching)