Word Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old word quotes, word sayings, and word proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

The right word is always a power, and communicates its definiteness to our action. George Eliot
Words are soldiers of fortune, hired by different ideas. Maxwell Bodenheim
Words are but the signs of ideas. Samuel Johnson
Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness. Samuel Beckett
It does not require many words to speak the truth. Chief Joseph
Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality. Joseph Conrad
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. Winston Churchill
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 time in which it is used. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Words are the great temptation. Marty Rubin
There's a great power in words, if you don't hitch too many of them together. Josh Billings
Words are potent weapons for all causes, good or bad. Manly Hall
Words once spoke can never be recall'd. Wentworth Dillon
It is a world of words that creates a world of things. J. M. Coetzee
Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few. Pythagoras
A word to the wise ain't necessary, it's the stupid ones that need the advice. Bill Cosby
Guard well your thoughts when alone and your words when accompanied. Roy T. Bennett
Words can hurt you. In the larger world, it frames how people think about you, and it can hurt you in lots of little, subtle ways. Nathan Myhrvold
Words mean things. When you put them together they speak. Yes, sometimes they flatten out and nothing they say is real, and that is one kind of magic. But sometimes a vision will rip up from them and shriek and clank wings clear as the sweat smudge on the paper under your thumb. And that is another kind. Samuel R. Delany
The written word has this advantage, that it lasts and can await the time when it is allowed to take effect. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Because even the smallest of words can be the ones to hurt you, or save you. Natsuki Takaya
We cannot always control our thoughts, but we can control our words, and repetition impresses the subconscious, and we are then master of the situation. Jane Fonda
The words of the world want to make sentences. Gaston Bachelard
Words which enlighten some darken others. Edward Counsel
Sweet words are like honey, a little may refresh, but too much gluts the stomach. Anne Bradstreet
Sometimes words are harder than blows. Zinedine Zidane
No man weighs his words who has but a moment to live. Philip Moeller
Words empty as the wind are best left unsaid. Homer
Words used carelessly, as if they did not matter in any serious way, often allowed otherwise well-guarded truths to seep through. Douglas Adams
Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning. Benjamin Franklin
A word in earnest is as good as a speech. Charles Dickens