Words, Words, Words.......Quotes

Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs. --Pearl Strachan

Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so he is. --Publilius Syrus

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. –Jesus Christ

Be careful of your thoughts; they may become words at any moment. --Ira Gassen

The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven't thought of yet. --Ann Landers

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous. --Henry B. Adams

Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it. --Robert Frost

There are two types who say very little: the quiet type and the gabby type. –Unknown

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. – Plato

To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks. --Ben Jonson

Human conversation is largely an endless attempt to convince others that we are more assertive or clever or generous or successful than they might think if we did not carefully educate them. --John Ortberg

People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say. --Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Language has three important uses--it expresses thought, conceals thought, and takes the place of thought. --Unknown

English is the perfect language for preachers because it allows you to talk until you think of what to say.-- Garrison Keillor

The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech. --George Bernard Shaw

Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness. --Margaret Millar

There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all. --Rebecca West

Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks only when driven to speech by something outside himself-like, for instance, he can't find any clean socks. --Jean Kerr

Words are plentiful; deeds are precious.-- Lech Walesa

After all is said and done, more is said than done. --Unknown

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. --Abigail Adams

Words calculated to catch everyone may catch no one. --Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. --Mahatma Gandhi

The flood of careless, unconsidered, cheap words is the greatest enemy of the profound word. -- Stephen L. Talbott

The words we say will teach if we practice what we preach. --Unknown

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. –Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:36-38)

Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken. --Orson Rega Card

By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach. --Winston Churchill

When you have spoken the word, it reigns over you. When it is unspoken you reign over it. --Arabian Proverb

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. --Ambrose Bierce

If you wouldn't write it and sign it, don't say it. --Earl Wilson

When you are arguing with a fool, make sure he isn't doing the same thing. —Unknown

If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind - give it more thought. --Dennis Roth

It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn --Robert Southey

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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

The true genius shudders at incompleteness - and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be. --Edgar Allan Poe

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. --Mark Twain

I am annoyed by individuals who are embarrassed by pauses in a conversation. To me, every conversational pause refreshes. --George Sanders

The most precious things in speech are the pauses. --Sir Ralph Richardson

Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when you'd have preferred to talk. --D.J. Kaufman

Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent. --Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence. --Spanish Proverb

Of those who say nothing, few are silent. --Thomas Neiel

Never miss a good chance to shut up. –Will Rogers

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say. --Will Durant

A hotheaded woman told John Wesley, "My talent is to speak my mind." Replied Mr. Wesley, "Woman, God wouldn't care a bit if you would bury that talent."

The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone? --
Ecclesiastes 6:11

Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall. --Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.-- Dr Samuel Johnson

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all. --Sir Winston Churchill

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people. --William Butler Yeats

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood. --William Penn

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill. --Buddha

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. --Colossians 4:6

Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.-- Adlai Stevenson

Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin. —Charles Spurgeon

Loud speech, profusion of words, and possessing skillfulness in expounding scriptures are merely for the enjoyment of the learned. They do not lead to liberation.-- Adi Shankaracharya (c. 650) Hindu reformer

One half the troubles in this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough. –Josh Billings

If you think little of a person, you ought to say as little as you think. –Benjamin Franklin

Great minds talk about ideas, Average minds talk about things, Small minds talk about other people. --Unknown

A holy mind cannot repeat a vile thing, let alone be the creator of a vile suggestion. --John G. Lake

Every discouraging sermon is a wicked sermon... There could hardly be a more un-Christian way of living than to go about in such a way as to depress and to discourage other people. --William Barclay

Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is. --Blaise Pascal

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.--Harriet Beecher Stowe

Also see quotes on: Flattery, Praise, Criticism and Encouragement