We should have a great 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
Language forces us to perceive the world as man presents it to us. – Julia Penelope
English is a funny language; that explains why we park our car on the driveway and drive our car on the parkway. – Author Unknown
Lymph, v.: to walk with a lisp. – From a Washington Post reader submission word contest
No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous. – Henry Brooks Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, 1907
Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne. – Quentin Crisp
Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work. – Carl Sandburg, New York Times, 1959 February 13th
In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer. – Mark Twain
At no time is freedom of speech more precious than when a man hits his thumb with a hammer. – Marshall Lumsden
What words say does not last. The words last. Because words are always the same, and what they say is never the same. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
We have too many high sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them. – Abigail Adams
Man is a creature who lives not upon bread alone, but primarily by catchwords. – Robert Louis Stevenson
A good catchword can obscure analysis for fifty years. – Wendell L. Willkie
I like the word “indolence.” It makes my laziness seem classy. – Bern Williams
Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true. – Samuel Johnson
Language is the dress of thought. – Samuel Johnson
Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons. – Aldous Huxley
The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand. – Lewis Thomas
In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages. – Alan J. Perlis
