The Quotes canon
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Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Henry Ward Beecher1 quote
All words are pegs to hang ideas on. — Henry Ward Beecher · 1887Jesus1 quote
It is not what enters the mouth that defiles the person, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles the person.” — Jesus · 60John Keating1 quote
No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world. — John Keating · 1989John Steinbeck1 quote
A writer lives in awe of words for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator. — John Steinbeck · 1954Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.1 quote
A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought, and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1918Ralph Waldo Emerson1 quote
For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. — Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1844Samuel Beckett1 quote
Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness. — Samuel Beckett · 1969Samuel Johnson1 quote
Words being arbitrary must owe their power to association, and have the influence, and that only, which custom has given them. Language is the dress of thought. — Samuel Johnson · 1779T.S. Eliot1 quote
Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still. — T.S. Eliot · 1936Thomas Hobbes1 quote
True and False are attributes of speech, not of things. And where speech is not, there is neither Truth nor Falsehood. — Thomas Hobbes · 1651Thomas Jefferson1 quote
Dictionaries are but the depositories of words already legitimated by usage. Society is the work-shop in which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses a new word, if illformed it is rejected in society, if well-informed, adopted, and, after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries. — Thomas Jefferson · 1820W. Somerset Maugham1 quote
Words have weight, sound, and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to. — W. Somerset Maugham · 1948