It is as easy to draw back a stone thrown with force from the hand, as to recall a word once spoken.
Words, however, are things; and the man who accords
To his language the license to outrage his soul,
Is controll'd by the words he disdains to control.
How many honest words have suffered corruption since Chaucer's days!
His words, * * * like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command.
With high words, that bore
Semblance of worth, not substance.
Yet hold it more humane, more heav'nly, first,
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
And make persuasion do the work of fear.
And to bring in a new word by the head and
shoulders, they leave out the old one.
Montaigne—Essays. Upon some Verses of
Vergil.
How many quarrels, and how important, has
the doubt as to the meaning of this syllable
"Hoc" produced for the world!
Montaigne—Essays. Bk. II. Ch.XII. (Referring to the controversies on transubstantiation—"Hoc est corpus meum.
Words repeated again have as another sound, so another sense.
Montaigne—Essays. Bk. III. Ch. XII.
So spake those wary foes, fair friends in look, And so in words great gifts they gave and took, And had small profit, and small loss thereby.
Wm. MoRRisWoson. Bk. VIII. 379.
The word impossible is not in my dictionary.
Napoleon I.
(See also Bulwer-lytton under {{sc|Failure)
Things were first made, then words.
Sib T. Overbuht—A Wife.
Hei mihi, quam facile est (quamvis hie contigit
omnes), Alterius lucta fortia verba loqui!
Ah me! how easy it is (how much all have
experienced it) to indulge in brave words in
another person's trouble.
Ovn>—Ad Liviam. 9.
Nbn opus est verbis, credite rebus.
There is no need of words; believe facts.
Ovid—Fasti. II. 734.
Le monde se paye de paroles; peu approfondissement les choses.
The world is satisfied with words. Few appreciate the things beneath. Pascal—Lettres Provinciates. II.
In pertusum ingerimus dicta dolium, operam ludimus.
We are pouring our words into a sieve, and lose our labor. Plautcs—Pseudolus. I. 3. 135.
Words will build no walls. Plutarch—Life of Pericles. Cratinus ridiculed the long wall Pericles proposed to build.
Words are like leaves; and where they most
abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.
| author = Pope
| work = Essay on Criticism. L. 309.
In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold:
Alike fantastic, if too new, or old:
Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
| author = Pope
| work = Essay on Criticism. L. 333.
Each word-catcher, that lives on syllables.
| author = Pope
| work = Prologue to Satires, 166.
They say » * *
That, putting all his words together,
'Tis three blue beans in one blue bladder.
Prior—Alma. Canto I. L. 26.
A word spoken in good season, how good is it! Proverbs. XV. 23.
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Proverbs. XXV. 11.
The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil. yet were they drawn swords.
Psalms. LV. 21.
Inanis verborum torrens.
An unmeaning torrent of words.
QUINTILIAN. 10. 7. 23.
Souvent d'un grand dessein un mot nous fait juger.
A single word often betrays a great design.
Racine—Athalie. II. 6.
He that useth many words for the explaining any subject, doth, like the cuttle fish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink.
John Ray—On Creation.
One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called "weasel words." When a weasel sucks eggs the meat is sucked out of the egg. If you use a "weasel word" after another there is nothing left of the other.
