Top 100 What Are Words Quotes
#1. I asked, "What are words?" The tenzo said, "One, two, three, four, five." I asked again, "What is practice?" "Nothing in the entire universe is hidden."
Dogen
#3. They just say words, and what are words but sounds these men shape out of breath, weightless vapors they send into the air of the kitchen to dissipate and die.
Anthony Doerr
#4. What are words? Sometimes the flick of a pair of eyes or the flush of skin reveals everything you need to know. Words can wound. Silence can heal.
Tillie Cole
#5. We are simple-minded enough to think that if we were saying something we would use words. We are rather doing something. The meaning of what we do is determined by each one who sees and hears it.
John Cage
#6. All writing is garbage. People who come out of nowhere to try and put into words any part of what goes on in their minds are pigs.
Antonin Artaud
#7. [...] it seems you don't understand that words are the labels we stick on things, not the things themselves, you'll never know what the things are really like, nor even what their real names are, because the names you gave them are just that, the names you gave them [...]
Jose Saramago
#8. It's extremely difficult to describe interestingly what happens on the pitch. Thousands of journalists write millions of words every week trying to do it, so your chances of avoiding cliche are very slim. And you're trying to write fiction, not a match report.
Mal Peet
#9. I hear myself saying these words: What this movement is about is options. I say it to friends who are frustrated, or housebound, or guilty, or child-laden, and what I'm really thinking is, If you really got it together, the option you would choose is mine.
Nora Ephron
#10. We cannot keep to ourselves the words of eternal life given to us in our encounter with Jesus Christ: they are meant for everyone, for every man and woman ... It is our responsibility to pass on what, by God's grace, we ourselves have received.
Pope Benedict XVI
#11. When you read a book, the neurons in your brain fire overtime, deciding what the characters are wearing, how they're standing, and what it feels like the first time they kiss. No one shows you. The words make suggestions. Your brain paints the pictures.
Meg Rosoff
#12. Words are like gems to me ... imagine yourself walking through a very shallow stream and picking up beautiful stones that catch your eye ... that's what names are like for me.
Anne Rice
#13. Yet because her needs and yearnings are real and pressing, she must find some way to express them: she puts into body what she cannot yet put into words. Her eating disorder serves as her voice, her attempt to express and meet her needs and desires without directly asking for anything.
Sheila M. Reindl
#14. I took on a year of reading books for a reason. Because words are witness to life: they record what has happened, and they make it all real. Words create the stories that become history and become unforgettable. Even fiction portrays truth: good fiction is truth.
Nina Sankovitch
#15. We do not wish success yet we obtain it. Always we find what we are not looking for. These words are too true not to become a proverb some day.
Honore De Balzac
#16. I have a beautiful address book a friend gave me in 1966. I literally cannot open it again. Ever. It sits on the shelf with over a hundred names crossed out. What is there to say? There are no words. I'll never understand why it happened to us.
Jerry Herman
#17. I know who we are, and how we got that way. We are writers. We danced with the words, as children, in what became familiar patterns. The words became our friends and our companions, and without even saying it aloud, a thought danced with them: I can do this. This is who I am.
Anna Quindlen
#18. What difference does it make if the Gospel is mostly a lie? It's an engrossing story and the words of its hero are excellent words to live by, even today.
Tom Robbins
#19. How many pizzas are consumed each year in the United States? How many words have you spoken in your life? How many different peoples names appear in the New York Times each year? How many watermelons would fit inside the U.S. Capital building? What is the volume of all the human blood in the world?
John Allen Paulos
#20. What well-advised ear regards What earth can say? Thy words are gold, but thy rewards Are painted clay.
Francis Quarles
#21. One might say that our words are a movie screen that reveals what we have been thinking and the attitudes we have.
Joyce Meyer
#22. You know what I know? I know that whenever someone tells you they are doing 'what's best for you', you're screwed. Those are not words you want to hear. It's right up there with 'it's not you it's me'.
Caroline Hanson
#23. In other words, to Train in the preliminaries is to stop moaning and feeling sorry for yourself and to recognize instead that regardless of what has happened or why, this is your life and you are the only one equipped to deal with it.
Norman Fischer
#24. What you've done isn't the only thing that defines who you are. Words are just as powerful as action. They can aspire action in others, can't they?
Erica Crouch
#25. You must always, always tell the truth. If you are mad, say so. If someone asks you anything, try to find the exact words to describe what you have to say. If you try to tell the exact truth, always, you will ground yourself, become yourself. The truth connects you. It hooks you back up.
George Hodgman
#26. Marriage and family are only what we make of them. Without that they're just a nest of hypocrisy. Garbage and empty words. But if there is real love, of the sort one doesn't go around telling everyone about, the sort that is felt and lived ...
Carlos Ruiz Zafon
#27. There are pains too deep for words, but there's touch to say what words can't.
Laurell K. Hamilton
#28. All I'm writing is just what I feel, that's all. I just keep it almost naked. And probably the words are so bland.
Jimi Hendrix
#29. Two of the saddest words in the English language are, 'What party?' And L.A. is the 'What party?' capital of the world.
Carrie Fisher
#30. People are so stupid, that they repeat your words and said in other words and what??
(I'm stupid, so stupid that I want to repeat), I just heard that probably I have missunderstand something...
(NOte- It's joke a Get it?)
Deyth Banger
#31. Our lives are a sequence of things. When we're alive, they're continuing, just as my words now are an improvisation. So the idea of 30 years is actually quite nebulous. It's impossible to encapsulate it. All you can do is go: 'what next?'
Simon McBurney
#32. I'm sorry. Oh, what simple words are these!
I'm sorry. Lips should breathe them out with ease!
But nay, in barring up the way,
"I'll die first" are the words you say.
I'm sorry, woe is all pride guarantees.
Richelle E. Goodrich
#33. People use you and what do you do? You use them too.. We all are mean!
Honeya
#34. Words don't tell you what people are thinking. Rarely do we use words to really tell. We use words to sell people or to convince people or to make them admire us. It's all disguise. It's all hidden
a secret language.
Robert Altman
#35. I know what I think, but words in the head are like voices under water.
Jeanette Winterson
#36. Forgetting who you are is so much more complicated than simply forgetting your name. It's also forgetting your dreams. Your aspirations. What makes you happy. What you pray you'll never have to live without. It's meeting yourself for the first time, and not being sure of your first impression.
Jessica Brody
#37. The point here is what makes human beings different from other creatures is our ability to use language. We can use words to express ourselves in very eloquent and complex ways. We grow up telling and listening to stories. That's what turns us into the people we are.
Flemming Rose
#38. Would that my hands were meant to build. I would know what to say. What to do. Maybe in another life I would have been that man. In this one, my words, like my hands, are clumsy. All they can do is cut. All they can do is break.
Pierce Brown
#39. Never Forget what someone says to you when they are drunk. Because Drunk words are Sober Thoughts
Wiz Khalifa
#40. So to me, what the drugs and addiction are saying is that I deserve to feel good, I'm allowed to take this because look how I was treated as a child. Our authority figures, particularly our parents are hypnotic. Their words are hypnotic literally to small children because of brain wave patterns.
Bernie Siegel
#41. You like lies?" Shallan asked. "Good lies," Pattern said. "That lie. Good lie." "What makes a lie good?" Shallan asked, taking careful notes, recording Pattern's exact words. "True lies." "Pattern, those two are opposites." "Hmmmm . . . Light makes shadow. Truth makes lies. Hmmmm.
Brandon Sanderson
#42. Why would you want to act, anyway?" was Seth's take on the subject. "Stand there and say other people's words, let everybody else tell you what to do ... Actors are just beautiful puppets.
Rainbow Rowell
#43. The question is, what are appropriate words and inappropriate words for network television, and what's the context? Was this appropriate in this context? Or are you creatively trying to find a way to use that word on the air?
Don Ohlmeyer
#44. If we sometimes lie and sometimes tell the truth, no one can be certain what they are hearing at any given time. Like yin and yang, truth and lies are inseparable, each containing a seed of the other, no words are ever entirely true or entirely untrue.
Chloe Thurlow
#45. Melodies are just honest. They can only be what they are. Words have the capacity for deception. They're all full of subtext, and some of them are cliche and overused and vernacular. They're tricky. All I can say is, words are tricky.
Andrew Bird
#46. As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through our words.
Henri Nouwen
#47. The images in a picture book are the driving forces that tell the story. The words tell only what the pictures can't.
Dan Yaccarino
#48. I can describe, and I've always been able to describe, what Republicans stand for in eight words, and the eight words are lower taxes, less government, strong defense and family values.
Byron Dorgan
#49. How empty are the insincere words of people who, so easily, speak forth "love," "family" and "friendship" without meaning what they say even if their intentions are good albeit mere flattery.
Donna Lynn Hope
#50. For what are the words with which to summarize a lifetime, so much crowded confused happiness terminated by such stark slow-motion pain?
Joyce Carol Oates
#51. I marvel at these young people: drinking their coffee, they tell clear, plausible stories. If they are asked what they did yesterday, they aren't embarrassed: they bring you up to date in a few words. If I were in their place, I'd fall all over myself.
Jean-Paul Sartre
#52. What I enjoy most are those times when I get an idea and it just flows - the words coming so fast that I'm scribbling to keep up with my characters. I don't have any writing must-haves; this is a good thing, since I've done a lot of my writing in random places like the playground or the subway.
Leah Cypess
#53. What are we going to blow up?"
Morgan sighed happily and slapped joss on the back. " Kid ... you just said my seven favorite words.
Heather Brewer
#54. It's quite standard for those who hold the clubs to say: "Forget about everything that happened and let's just go on from here." In other words, "I've got what I want, and out forget about what your concerns are. I'll just take what I want.
Noam Chomsky
#55. The next time you are heading out the door, pause at the mirror and make sure that what you see reflects your purpose and value. That doesn't mean donning the burka, but it probably doesn't mean having words on your butt either.
Amy E. Spiegel
#56. Daemon spoke in his language. The lyrical quality of his words made no sense to me.
"What did you say?" I asked.
"There's really no translation for it," he said, "but the closest human words would be, you are beautiful to me.
Jennifer L. Armentrout
#57. Quit being so hard on yourself. We are what we are; we love what we love. We don't need to justify it to anyone ... not even to ourselves.
Scott Lynch
#58. What about those Promises of yours to never leave me? she asked, stammering too much this time. His cruel smirk was as gut-wrenching as his words - Promises are meant to be broken, sweetheart.
Khadija Rupa
#59. Twitch doesn't say much. He doesn't need to. You know that saying actions speak louder than words? His actions are speaking for him. And I like what they're saying. I wonder if he'll let me keep him.
Belle Aurora
#60. People say that scars are the sign of victory; the winning marks against what broke them. But how about the wound that never heals? What would that make you? A winner, a loser, a survivor?
E. Mellyberry
#61. Do your best with what you have where you are.
Lucy Punch
#62. Cure is one of the most precious words in the English language. It's a short word. A clean and simple word. But it isn't so easy a thing as it sounds. There are questions like: How will this affect us in ten years? In twenty? What will it do to our children? Our children's children?
Lauren DeStefano
#63. Words are powerful. They too can be the agents of what is new, of what is conceivable and can be thought and let loose upon the world.
David Malouf
#64. I asked of Echo 't other day (Whose words are few and often funny), What to a novice she could say Of courtship, love, and matrimony. Quoth Echo, plainly, Matter-o'-money.
John Godfrey Saxe
#65. There are certain situations in which you can't convey what you mean. Words don't always work.
Brian Morton
#66. Either accept people for what they are, or don't. So, in other words, man, if people don't know me, I think they do themself an injustice. Because, as a whole, I think I'm a good person.
Ike Turner
#67. For the deeds of a man, not the words of a prophecy, are what shape his destiny.
Lloyd Alexander
#68. The four most important words in the English language are, "What do you think?" Listen to your people and learn.
J.W. "Bill" Marriott Jr.
#69. Words are what sticks to the real. We use them to push the real, to drag the real into the poem. They are what we hold on with, nothing else. They are as valuable in themselves as rope with nothing to be tied to.
Jack Spicer
#71. The words were a paraphrase of the suggestion of Jesus: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's."
Bokonon's paraphrase was this:
"Pay no attention to Caesar. Caesar doesn't have the slightest idea what's really going on.
Kurt Vonnegut
#72. You are writing a gospel, A chapter each day, By the deeds that you do And the words that you say. Men read what you write, Whether faithful or true: Just what is the gospel According to you? - SOURCE UNKNOWN
Warren W. Wiersbe
#73. The wise do not buy into other people's perceptions of who they are and what they are capable of. Instead, they bypass a person's public persona and see who they are in their highest expression. When you see actions taken with integrity, instead of words only, you will then know a soul's worth.
Shannon L. Alder
#74. All action must be performed with detachment. Regard pain, pleasure; gain, loss; victory, defeat as equal. Battle for battle's sake with your mind completely on what you must do. With this knowledge there is no waster even in the first attempt. There are no impediments.
Meera Uberoi
#75. No words for a long time. Which is fine, because even the most important ones
I love you. I'm sorry. Forgive me? I'm here
are only stand-ins for what you can say better without talking at all.
Huntley Fitzpatrick
#76. I suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.
Anita Brookner
#77. Also bear in mind, when you're choosing your words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize.
William Zinsser
#78. Only Americans think they have rights," Magic Gourd said. "What laws of heaven give you more rights and allow you to keep them? They are words on paper written by men who make them up and claim them. One day they can blow away, just like that." She
Amy Tan
#79. Words are such powerful things. We can rip somebody apart with them, we can write words down that can forever hurt another person. We can use them to tell stories and lies. We can misquote them and change what other people said to make ourselves look good ...
Joan Bauer
#80. O words are poor receipts for what time hath stole away
John Clare
#81. All we have are our words and our actions. They are what define us. And one without the other is no good. You need to utilize both to make true change. Within yourself. Internally and externally.
Noah Nichols
#82. What offends me the most when I hear criticisms about this so-called Africa bias is how quick we are to focus on the words and propaganda of a few powerful, influential individuals, and to forget about the millions of anonymous people who suffer from their crimes.
Fatou Bensouda
#83. Words Like Freedom
There are words like Freedom
Sweet and wonderful to say.
On my heartstrings freedom sings
All day everyday.
There are words like Liberty
That almost make me cry.
If you had known what I know
You would know why.
Langston Hughes
#84. Words are often things also, and very precious, especially on the gravest occasions. Without "words," and the truth of things that is in them, what were we?
Leigh Hunt
#85. The far we can see, we are! It is time we lifted our eyes beyond the horizon of our present boundaries and see goodies ahead of us.
Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
#86. We know, in other words, the general conditions in which what we call, somewhat misleadingly, an equilibrium will establish itself: but we never know what the particular prices or wages are which would exist if the market were to bring about such an equilibrium.
Friedrich August Von Hayek
#87. Words are like nets - we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, or grief, or wonder.
Jodi Picoult
#88. We're not outside the world... We are the world. We're its language. So we live and it lives. You see? If we don't say the words, what is their in our world?
Ursula K. Le Guin
#89. What I do find surprising is that other people do not think in the same way. I find it hard to imagine a world where numbers and words are not how I experience them!
Daniel Tammet
#90. I think that the great trick in life, wherever you are in the journey, is to do what you love and let the universe support it. When we do what we love, every day is a holiday.
Robert Moss
#91. Remember the wise words of Saint Catherine of Siena: "If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire!
Brett Brannen
#92. The real orphans are words, always stumbling about to capture what must be said. And here they go again.
Nathan Leslie
#93. 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
#94. I like 'nerves'! I like the word 'migraineur'. I like the word 'madness'. These are OK words. The 19th century had a very handy term: 'neurasthenic'. I think that's a very useful word. We all know what that means: it means extra-sensitive.
Siri Hustvedt
#95. What are some words that come to mind when you think of flowers?
Colleen Hoover
#96. We never change. Neither our socks nor our masters nor our opinions, or we're so slow about it that it's no use. We were born loyal and that's what killed us! Soldiers free of charge, heroes for everyone else, talking monkeys, tortured words, we are the minions of King Misery ... It's not a life.
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
#97. Diligence deserves to be rewarded." "In what proportion? And in what currency? These are empty words.
Eleanor Catton
#98. Words, I've come to learn, are pulleys through time. Portals into other minds. Without words, what remains? Indecipherable customs. Strange rites. Blighted hearts. Without words, we're history's orphans. Our lives and thoughts erased
Alena Graedon
#99. There are no words for this. Like the flesh, like a prison cell, so, too, are words confining, narrow, chafing, stupid things incapable of expressing one particle of what I felt, what I feel when I see my beloved's face, when he takes me in his arms.
Julie Berry
#100. There was no need for words, for there are times when words can only hint at what the heart would wish to say.
Alexander McCall Smith
