Quotable Quotes: Words
by Miki Saxon
I love words. They are one of my very favorite things, so I thought it would be interesting so see what others thought of them.
Edward Thorndike believes words are for the long term, “Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure.” Sadly, it’s not just the wise ones that last through time.
Rudyard Kipling thinks they are addictive, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” (I agree.)
Long before I wrote this, Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “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.”
Americans point proudly to the words contained in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, but as Ralph Ellison reminds us, “If the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it has also the power to bind, imprison and destroy.”
Philip K. Dick explains that further, “The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.” (Manipulation was our focus Friday.)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe hit the nail on the head when he said, “When ideas fail, words come in very handy.” Just ask any politician, parent or, for that matter entrepreneur.
Common wisdom, AKA anonymous, offers critical advice that is too often ignored, “Don’t use a big word where a diminutive one will suffice.”
Finally, smart people, as well as the wise, keep Adlai Stevenson’s words firmly in mind every time they open their mouths to speak, “Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.” Obviously politicians are neither smart nor wise.
Flickr image credit: AuthenticEccentric
