Top 100 You Mean What You Say Quotes
#1. There are many kinds of sincerity and insincerity. When you say 'thank you' for the salt, do you mean what you say ? No. When you say 'the world is round,' do you mean what you say ? No. It is true, but you don't mean it
G.K. Chesterton
#2. You cannot drive people to do things which are right, but you can love them into doing them, if your example is of such a character that they can see you mean what you say.
George Albert Smith
#3. You've often heard me say - perhaps too often - that poetry is what is lost in translation. It is also what is lost in interpretation. That little poem means just what it says and it says what it means, nothing less but nothing more.
Robert Frost
#4. Once you say something, it stays said. I apologized to anyone who may have been hurt by what I said, and I really meant it. I am absolutely not interested in hurting anyone, or being mean or insensitive.
Henry Rollins
#5. When people say that they have longing to be a child (again)I think that they mean that they miss that child-like enthusiasm for life.
As a child, an adult can stop you from doing what makes you happy. Whereas, with enthusiasm, no adult should have the power to stop you.
Cheri Bauer
#6. Just because your mind tells you that something is awful or evil or unplanned or otherwise negative doesn't mean you have to agree. Just because other people say that something is hopeless or crazy or broken to pieces doesn't mean it is. We decide what story to tell ourselves.
Ryan Holiday
#7. I say what I mean. Would you like it better if I said 'I'm glad you find me so.' That would be a little fancier, and equally true.
Thomas Harris
#8. If you say to the White House, 'Obama has been very unfriendly to Israel,' they say, 'What do you mean? It's the best military-to-military relationship ever.' And that part is true.
Elliott Abrams
#9. Most people are good at too many things. And when you say someone is focused, more often than not what you actually mean is they're very narrow.
Chuck Close
#10. I'm not one of those people that has to look myself up every five seconds to see what people are saying. That's been really helpful. I mean, you get thousands of compliments, and then one person will say something negative - and that's all you'll remember, that one person.
Carmen Electra
#11. I'm surprised you know that," I say quietly, " since you left halfway through my one and only fight." "It wasn't something I wanted to watch." he says. What's that supposed to mean?
Veronica Roth
#12. People like to stir up the fashion vs. costume world, and I think what they mean by 'too costumey' is that it's too much, or not real enough for everyday wear. You couldn't say that about John Galliano's shows, right? I mean, they're awesome, and they're total costume.
Colleen Atwood
#13. Good communication is less about saying what you mean, and more about defining what you say.
Kelli Jae Baeli
#14. Riley stared at him. "How do you just say that stuff?"
"What do you mean? How do I just say shit without thinking about it? I dunno. I just do. It's not that hard. Just try it sometime."
"Okay," Riley said, and then he said, "I love you.
Avon Gale
#15. I'm a child of the Cold War. You do not say, "Oh, my God, there are Russian planes, so I'm going to cede the field." I mean, what kind of world would we have had if the United States had done that for 60 years?
Anne-Marie Slaughter
#16. Oh - once in your life you find someone
Who will turn your world around
Bring you up when you're feelin' down
Ya - nothin' could change what you mean to me
Oh there's lots that I could say
But just hold me now
Cause our love will light the way
Bryan Adams
#17. I do not know what arguments mean in reference to any expression of a thought. I delight in telling what I think; but if you ask me how I dare say so, or why it is so, I am the most helpless of men.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#18. Brains. Brains. What do we really mean by the term? In your idiom you would say that Jane Wilkinson has the brains of a rabbit. That is a term of disparagement. But consider the rabbit for a moment. He exists and multiplies, does he not? That, in Nature, is a sign of mental superiority.
Agatha Christie
#19. Learn to say to the abuser in a firm voice, "Stop it." Do not explain yourself, your needs, or what you mean. Simply call a halt to the abuse, and let that be your final word.
Caroline Abbott
#20. You know I say just what I think, and nothing more and less. I cannot say one thing and mean another.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
#21. When someone says something petty or nasty, one of those little passive-aggressive things that would usually just pick at me for days, my new response is not to shut the door and bitch to anyone who will listen. Now? The moment they say it? "What did you mean by that?" I ask in a calm voice. It
Shonda Rhimes
#22. I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least - at least I mean what I say - that's the same thing, you know.
Lewis Carroll
#23. You're never terrified when you say what you mean - are you?
Mo Mowlam
#24. Often when he was teaching me to write in Greek, the Fox would say, "Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that is the whole art and joy of words." A glib saying.
C.S. Lewis
#25. I'm a simple man, Janet. I say what I mean and have no talent for games. I want to show you how I feel about you so there's no chance for misunderstanding. If you think I'm trying to romance you, you're right. I am.
Pamela Clare
#26. Without words meaning anything, we stop meaning anything. It's getting to the point where nobody means what they say or says what they really mean.
Suzy Kassem
#27. Say what you think; think what you mean.
Yusuf Islam
#28. Lying is easy. But it's lonely."
"What do you mean?"
"When you lie to everyone about everything, what's left? What's true?"
"Nothing," I say.
"Exactly.
Victoria Schwab
#29. The Bible says to 'fear not,' but this doesn't mean you should never feel scared. It means when you do feel fear, keep going forward and do what you are supposed to do. Or as I like to say, do it afraid.
Joyce Meyer
#30. I would say in just about every investigation we have, there will be differences of opinion, where you have partial facts, as to what those facts mean.
Robert Mueller
#31. The great man say that life is pain," Coydog had said over eighty-five years before. "That mean if you love life, then you love the hurt come along wit' it. Now, if that ain't the blues, I don't know what is.
Walter Mosley
#32. Even though it's an unpopular paradigm, wear your heart on your sleeve, and mean what you say. Believe in what you say, and there will be a time for that. Maybe that time hasn't come yet, but there will be a time for that.
Geoff Rickly
#33. You know what, I'm happy to say that everything outside of 'Dexter' feels like a vacation, and I don't mean to say anything negative about the show. It's just a different kind of work. Emotionally it's taxing and complicated, and that's a great thing.
Jennifer Carpenter
#34. Then we'll make a deal, you and me. We'll do and say exactly what we mean. And to hell with what anyone thinks about it. If we want to smoke, we'll smoke, if we want to swear, we'll swear. How does that sound?
Jess Walter
#35. It's really very unpleasant. And not being able to say anything to answer back makes it rankle more, if you know what I mean.
Agatha Christie
#36. So when I meet a woman, I should simply say, 'You are beautiful?'" Tempi shook his head. "No. You would say simply 'beautiful,' and let the woman decide the rest of what you mean.
Patrick Rothfuss
#37. If you are emotionally honest, you should mean what you say but also mean what you do.
John Bytheway
#38. My father was a Republican, and he couldn't stand what Franklin Delano Roosevelt was doing to the country. I always say I'm a mean-spirited narrow-minded right-wing, conservative Christian ... I start out with that, and if you don't like it, you can lump it. I am not politically correct.
Jane Russell
#39. When I was in prison, I read an article - don't be shocked when I say I was in prison. You're still in prison. That's what America means: prison.
Malcolm X
#40. You mean to say a family of hot-tempered Mafia people are all cosying up with each other on a Saturday night to sit down and watch a movie about a family of hot-tempered Mafia people...? Is that really what you're telling me?
Catherine Doyle
#41. She doesn't say anything for a few seconds. "Are you sure, Kate? A year is a long time, especially at your age."
"True. It would be a shame for you to miss my first step."
She rolls her eyes. "You know what I mean.
Rysa Walker
#42. Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean.
Miguel Angel Ruiz
#43. In any language it is a struggle to make a sentence say exactly what you mean.
Arthur Koestler
#45. Life means nothing to you, at least that's what they say. But it doesn't mean that you have the right to take life away.
Ray Davies
#46. It doesn't much matter what you say when you're screwing anyway. Or how you do it. Slow and
gentle or fast and violent - it's the feelings behind it that make it mean something. That make it mean
everything.
Christ, am I enlightened or what? Aren't you proud of me? You should be.
Emma Chase
#47. It's the way he gets noticed, you know? I mean, imagine what it would be like if you were a squirrel living in the elephant cage at the zoo. Does anyone ever go there and say, Hey check out that squirrel? No, because there's something so much bigger you notice first.
Jodi Picoult
#48. This is what I mean..." I say softly, "you don't seem very angel-y right now"
"I'm not feeling very angel-y right now", he reply
A.J. Messenger
#49. You don't know what to say to me because the kingdom is within ... flesh and blood's dream ... so you fly now, pay later, all of us ... I mean actually it's PAY NOW, FLY LATER
Jack Kerouac
#50. I mean, artistic processes are all about making choices all the time, and the very act of making a choice is the distilling down and the getting to the core of what it is that you care about and what you want to say, really.
Mike Leigh
#51. I love these members, they get up and say, 'Read the bill ... What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?'
John Conyers
#52. To me, the most important thing was to treat people the way you want to be treated. Some people say that I'm a mean person. Well, you know what? The person that's saying that is probably a dipshit and I put them in their place! I have a knack for doing that.
Dave Mustaine
#53. When you're in love, when somebody says something like, "How can you be with that woman?" you say, "What do you mean? I am with this goddess of love, the fulfillment of my whole life. Why are you saying this? Why do you want to throw a rock at her or punish me for being in love with her?
John Lennon
#54. I mean, what can you say about how you write your books? What I mean is, first you've got to think of something, and then when you've thought of it you've got to force yourself to sit down and write it. That's all." ~ Mrs. Oliver
Agatha Christie
#55. Just be careful what you say. Don't upset him."
"You mean the Grumpus guy?"
"It's Krampus.
Brom
#56. It is not when I am going to meet him, but when I am just turning away and leaving him alone, that I discover what God is. I say, God. I am not sure that that is the name. You will know what I mean.
Henry David Thoreau
#57. Honest people are a refuge: You know they mean what they say; you know they will not say one thing to your face and another behind your back; you know they will tell you when they think you have failed - and for this reason their praise cannot be mistaken for mere flattery.
Sam Harris
#58. Britain deserves better than people who say they've got a quick fix but won't tell you what it actually means for Britain, we need a much bigger conversation than this.
Ruth Davidson
#59. I want to be part of the resurgence of things that are tangible, beautiful and soulful, rather than just give in to the digital age. But when I talk to people about this they just say, 'Yeah, I know what you mean,' and stare at their mobiles.
Jack White
#60. When you say things like, 'We have to wipe out the Taliban,' what does that mean? The Taliban is not a fixed number of people. The Taliban is an ideology that has sprung out of a history that, you know, America created anyway.
Arundhati Roy
#61. You understand ... just what the Taoists mean when they say that soft is stronger than hard.
Alan Weisman
#62. You can be the greatest at stringing words together but if you don't mean what you say your words will not live long in this world.
Jason E. Hodges
#63. Language trips you up. You can't ever say exactly what you mean, and every time you try try, you actually end up saying something about yourself.
Chris Weitz
#64. He always operated on the assumption that the straightforward approach was the best and most effective in any given situation. Say what you mean, mean what you say. The
Melanie Shawn
#65. Scientifically speaking, if I say something, or it gets misquoted, or people put a spin on it ... I mean, are you interested, really, in what people are saying?
Tamsin Greig
#66. When I came into your life your life was over. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is the end. You can say that things could have turned out differently. That they could have been some other way. But what does that mean? They are not some other way. They are this way.
Cormac McCarthy
#67. I know you've told me you love me, but what do I mean to you?" Dirk was quiet for a long time, and Lee wondered what Dirk was going to say. "Everything." Dirk answered, and Lee realized that sometimes a single word said it all.
Andrew Grey
#68. Freedom means you're free to do just whatever pleases you; if, of course that is to say, what you please is what you may.
Piet Pieterszoon Hein
#69. The moment you say, "We are proud. I'm proud to be this, and I'm proud to be that," what you're saying is we're almost as good as the others. "Almost" always means not quite.
Harry Hay
#70. What do you mean? he asked. Beginning with the State, I replied, would you say that a city which is governed by a tyrant is free or enslaved? No city, he said, can be more completely enslaved. And
Plato
#71. The theme you choose may change or simply elude you, but being your own story means you can always choose the tone. It also means that you can invent the language to say who are you and what you mean.
Toni Morrison
#72. It's so hard to be sincere without sounding pretentious,' she said. 'I mean, what are you supposed to do if you really happen to feel like you've swallowed the universe? Not say so?
Elif Batuman
#73. When I was figuring out what to say for the wedding, I kept thinking about you and me." Cinder jolted. "I knew it!" Kai's eyebrows shot upward. "I mean, there seemed to be a lot of overlap," she added. "Especially that part about defying race and distance and physiological tampering." He
Marissa Meyer
#74. Just remember, what the French say. No, probably not the French, they've got a president or something. The Brits, maybe, or the Swedes. You know what I mean?"
"No, Matthew. What do they say?"
"The king is dead, that's what they say. The king is dead. Long live the king.
Neil Gaiman
#75. Oh! No, I only mean what I have read about. It always puts me in mind of the country that Emily and her father travelled through, in The Mysteries of Udolpho. But you never read novels, I dare say?" "Why not?" "Because they are not clever enough for you - gentlemen read better books.
Jane Austen
#76. Now whatever you think of the liberal agenda on its merits, until very recently nobody thought the Constitution meant what liberals now say it means.
Joseph Sobran
#77. That was a terrible Super Bowl, I have to say. I mean you got the big Peyton Manning walk off into the sunset win, but what a shnoozo.
Billy Corgan
#78. She scolded him with fire in her eyes, feeling where he was going, feeling as if she was stabbed in the heart. I wasn't saying it was bad. Different doesn't mean bad. In fact, I think you are so ... beautiful! What you say ... it makes sense to me in ways I can't even understand.
Darryl Steven Markowitz
#79. I like working with sound; sound and rhythm. I like the abstract more than "What does that mean?" Nobody ever says to you, "Why did you use a harmonium?" Or "What is that ringing sound that occurs here?" The questions are always "What does that song mean?" or "What were you trying to say here?"
Paul Simon
#80. What I'm trying to do is be righteous. And when I say "righteous," I don't mean God. You know? God- Righteous. I mean just when I wake up, I know I was honest to myself.
Patrice O'Neal
#81. Yeah, well, when they say 'You know it's a long way, don't you?' what they really mean is: 'You know it'd be faster if you just rode a kangaroo, don't you?
Elle Lothlorien
#82. Photography is like life What does it all mean? I don't know - but you get an impression, a feeling. An impression of walking through the street, walking through the park, walking through life. I'm very suspicious of people who say they know what it means.
Leonard Freed
#83. Mason knew what it was like to say things you didn't mean, to just have them vomit out, and then feel that crushing ache when you realized you could never pull them back.
Dan Krokos
#84. Heterophemize (v.) To say something different from what you mean to say. Think back on all the things you've said in life that you truly wish you hadn't. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just claim afterward that you had been heterophemizing, and be instantly forgiven? Homodoxian
Ammon Shea
#85. You know what they say," Amanda said. "Hatred isn't the opposite of love, it's just another variation of it. They both mean you have passionate feelings for someone.
Robin Brande
#86. As an artist, the most important feeling is loneliness. So when I say artists need to isolate themselves from society this is what I mean: You have to look for that feeling of loneliness again. Only this way can you have something that is purely your own.
Zhang Xiaogang
#87. People shouldn't pinky swear if they don't mean it because the pinky is the weakest finger out of the five. If you want to truly stand by what you say, then use your thumb.
Patrick Stevens
#88. People look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he's ever read, and another person will say it's absolutely idiotic. I mean, there's no way to reconcile those two things. You just have to forget the whole business of what people are saying.
Paul Auster
#89. I pause, unsure what to type. It would be weird to say I've missed you too, even though I have, because that feels like I'm betraying Porter. I'm so confused. Maybe he doesn't even mean it that way. Maybe he never did. Lord knows I'm not good at reading people.
Jenn Bennett
#90. Why people use "Was" I have heard some people to say "I was a smart kid at school - Eminem", but why "Was", was is a word for describing the past... which will mean that has started and ended... so what??? How to get it now? You aren't wise, are you?
Deyth Banger
#91. Well, I haven't signed anything giving people the right to do anything they want with my image, you know what I mean. I have the ultimate say.
Joaquin Phoenix
#92. When activists say we need to move past the partisan divide, what they mean is: Shut up and get with my program. Have you ever heard anyone say, "We need to get past all of this partisan squabbling and name-calling. That's why I'm going to abandon all my objections and agree with you"?
Jonah Goldberg
#93. Mind your language, count your words, mean what you say coz otherwise people no longer stay
Ameya Agrawal
#94. When you say 'state' you mean 'national.' National Socialism. That is what Mussolini and Hitler did. National Socialism. State Capitalism. They've changed the name.
Beck
#95. I mean, they say they've gotta change the street kids' lives. Well, that's true. But you can't take somebody from point A to point Z overnight. You can't make me a fucking suburban teenager now, after what's gone down. It'll never happen.
Jim Goldberg
#96. Hey, I know planet earth is dying. So what do you want me to say?
Grumble? Give me a break! These all mean that we should live our
life to love and to be loved while we still have some time to do that.
Toba Beta
#97. Do you have a name for the baby?" Nurse Melinda inquires. "Roshini," I answer. "What does it mean?" she asks. "A ray of light," I say, drawing my baby closer. "Roshini means a ray of light.
Gayathri Ramprasad
#98. Say what you mean, be who you are, and hope for the best.
Justin Rogers
#100. When they say inflation is bad, deflation is good, what they mean is, more money for us 1% is good; we're all for asset price inflation, we're all for housing prices going up, and we're all for our stock and bonds prices going up. We're just against you workers getting more income.
Michael Hudson
