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Wording Quotes

Browse 46 quotes about Wording.

Wording Quotes

“If I’m asking what kind of ‘return’ I should be expecting on the sacrifices I’m making, I have in that question revealed the need to ‘return’ that question to wherever I found it and have the word ‘return’ edited out of it.”

GivingWisdomSacrificeReturnGreedSelfishSelfishnessSelflessNarcissismEditingMisunderstoodNarcissisticWordQuestionSelf ServingEgocentricSacrificesSacrificialWordingSacrificingEditMisunderstandDividendMisconstrue
Author:Craig D. Lounsbrough
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“In many a case, the phrase ‘I’d like to get to know you better’ is a euphemism for ‘I want us to fuck.”

WritingRomanceLanguageRelationshipsTalkingRelationshipStyleCommunicationBedConversationSpeechCourtWordsTonguePursueDiscourseWoeVocabularyCantAcquaintanceKnowTalkSeeSpeakingCourtshipDialectJargonDateIdiomSlangEuphemismTerminologyFuckChaseMother TongueSexual IntercourseWordingCourtingExpressionsMake LoveEuphemismsWooChoice Of WordsLingoSleep WithPatoisNative TonguePhrasingAcquaintMake AcquaintanceParlancePhraseologyTurns Of PhraseUsagesArgotDysphemismDysphemismsForm Of ExpressionGo Out WithGo Steady WithIdiolectLocutionsMode Of ExpressionRun AfterSeek The HandSet One S Cap For
Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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“Изморось поливала прохожих: награждала их гриппами; вместе с тонкою пылью дождя инфлуэнцы и гриппы заползали под приподнятый воротник: гимназиста, студента, чиновника, офицера, субъекта; и субъект (так сказать, обыватель) озирался тоскливо; и глядел на проспект стерто-серым лицом; циркулировал он в бесконечность проспектов, преодолевал бесконечность, без всякого ропота — в бесконечном токе таких же, как он,— среди лёта, грохота, трепетанья, пролеток, слушая издали мелодичный голос автомобильных рулад и нарастающий гул желто-красных трамваев (гул потом убывающий снова), в непрерывном окрике голосистых газетчиков.”

WowSymbolismWording
Book:Petersburg
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“No writer ever knows enough words but he doesn’t have to try to use all that he does know. Tests would show that I had an enormous vocabulary and through the years it must have grown, but I never had a desire to display it in the way that John Updike or William Buckley or William Safire do to such lovely and often surprising effect. They use words with such spectacular results; I try, not always successfully, to follow the pattern of Ernest Hemingway who achieved a striking style with short familiar words. I want to avoid calling attention to mine, judging them to be most effective as ancillaries to a sentence with a strong syntax. My approach has been more like that of Somerset Maugham, who late in life confessed that when he first thought of becoming a writer he started a small notebook in which he jotted down words that seemed unusually beautiful or exotic, such as chalcedony, for as a novice he believed that good writing consisted of liberally sprinkling his text with such words. But years later, when he was a successful writer, he chanced to review his list and found that he had never used even one of his beautiful collection. Good writing, for most of us, consists of trying to use ordinary words to achieve extraordinary results. I struggle to find the right word and keep always at hand the largest dictionary my workspace can hold, and I do believe I consult it at least six or seven times each working day, for English is a language that can never be mastered.* [*Even though I have studied English for decades I am constantly surprised to find new definitions I have not known: ‘panoply’ meaning ‘a full set of armor’, ‘calendar’ meaning ‘a printed index to a jumbled group of related manuscripts or papers’. —Chapter IX “Intellectual Equipment”, page 306”

WritingWordsDefinitionsSentencesVocabularyDictionaryJargonSyntaxHow To WriteWording
Book:The World Is My Home: A Memoir
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“I suppose my attitude toward the creative process is much like that of Alexandre Dumas pere when he was approached by a young aspirant who boasted that he was going to write a novel much better than either “The Three Musketeers” or “The Count of Monte Cristo”. ‘Have you an attractive setting?’ the veteran writer asked politely, and the young man replied: ‘The greatest! Ominous islands. Gleaming castles. Wooded glens with gracious mansions.’ ‘Have you interesting characters?’ ‘Kings and princesses and dubious cardinals.’ ‘But have you a logical plot to tie this together?’ ‘A most ingenious one. Twists and turns that will bewilder and delight.’ Said Dumas: ‘Young man, you’re in excellent shape. Now all you need are two hundred thousand words, and they’d better be all the right ones.’” —Chapter IX, “Intellectual Equipment”, pages 311-312”

WritingWordsStorytellingPlotWriting ProcessCharactersWordingDumas
Book:The World Is My Home a Memoir
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“In the middle 1970s an astronomer I admire put together a modest manifesto called "Objections to Astrology" and asked me to endorse it. I struggled with his wording, and in the end found myself unable to sign, not because I thought astrology has any validity whatever, but because I felt (and still feel) that the tone of the statement was authoritarian.”

FeelsStillsEndsTogetherFoundFeltAtheismMiddlePositive AtheismStatementsAdmireToneModestAstrologyObjectionsValidityAstronomersManifestosWording
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“Poetry is a second translation of the soul's feeling; it must be rendered into thought, and thought must change its nebulous robe of semi-wording into definite language, before it reaches another heart. Music is a first translation of feeling, needing no second, but entering the heart direct.”

FirstsHeartSoulFeelingsLanguageMusic IsDirectPoetry IsDefiniteEnteringTranslationsRobesWording
Book:Golden Thoughts from the Life and Works of Frances Ridley Havergal ...
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“I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence,' because I don't believe that I am non-violent. ... Right now, I would love to kill George Bush. I don't know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see children die, the anger in me is just beyond belief. It's our duty as human beings, whatever age we are, to become the protectors of human life.”

KnowsLifeBelieveHumansChildrenHardAgeDeathDiesBeliefHuman BeingsKnow HowViolenceDyingDutyRight NowProtectAngerKillingDon't BelieveViolentHuman LifeHard TimesPrizeNobelNon ViolenceProtectorNon ViolentNobel Peace PrizeWording
Author:Betty Williams
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“There was a time when you were not a slave, remember that. You walked alone, full of laughter, you bathed bare-bellied. You say you have lost all recollection of it, remember . . . You say there are no words to describe this time, you say it does not exist. But remember. Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent.”

DoeRememberTimeLostEffortFailingLaughterSlaverySlaveFeministGood TimesRecollectionInventingRemember YouRemembers YouBathingWording
Author:Monique Wittig
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“...there is a celebrated aphorism insisting that the best way to live is to 'work like you don't need the money, dance like nobody is watching, and love like you've never been hurt.'...After years of hearing and reading these lines I have decided to tell the truth: the original version is wrong. There is a grave error in the wording of this adage. The correct version should go as follows: Love like you don't need the money, Work like nobody is watching, Dance like you've never been hurt. See? Doesn't that make more sense?”

WayNeedsShouldYearsReadingHurtLinesLike YouDecidedAnd LoveOriginalsErrorsHearingGravesBest WayVersionsTelling The TruthAphorismAdagesWay To LiveInsistingBeen HurtWording
Author:Gina Barreca
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“The IPCC 'policy summaries,' written by a small group of their political operatives, frequently contradict the work of the scientists that prepare the scientific assessments. Even worse, some of the wording in the science portions has been changed by policy makers after the scientists have approved the conclusions.”

Has BeensPoliticalWrittenGroupsPolicyChangedScientistConclusionGlobal WarmingMakersPortionsAssessmentApprovedSmall GroupsSummaryPolicy MakersWording
Author:Peter Friedman
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“The words graphic designer, architect, or industrial designer stick in my throat, giving me a sense of limitation, of specialisation within the specialty, of a relationship to society and form itself that is unsatisfactory and incomplete. This inadequate set of terms to describe an active life reveals only partially the still undefined nature of the designer.”

LifeGivingStillsFormTermNatureRelationshipSocietySpecialDesignIndustryLimitsSticksActiveArchitectureSensesLimitationDesignerThroatArchitectRevealingGraphicDescribingInadequateIncompleteGraphic DesignSpecialtyUnsatisfiedSpecializationGraphic DesignerActive LifeIncompletenessUndefinedWordingCreative Industries
Author:Alvin Lustig
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“Of course, the truth is that the congresspersons are too busy raising campaign money to read the laws they pass. The laws are written by staff tax nerds who can put pretty much any wording they want in there. I bet that if you actually read the entire vastness of the US tax code, you'd find at least one sex scene. ("Yes, yes, YES!" moaned Vanessa as Lance, his taut body moist with moisture, again and again depreciated her adjusted gross rate of annualized fiscal debenture...)”

IfsWantBodyLawCoursesSexWrittenTruth IsSceneTaxesRateBusyCongressCampaignsCodeAgain And AgainStaffGrossNerdToo BusyVastnessMoistureWording
Author:Dave Barry
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“At least three time per day at scheduled times, he had to ask himself the following question: Am I being productive or just active? Charney captured the essence of this with less-abstract wording: Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important? He eliminated all of the activities he used as crutches and began to focus on demonstrating results instead of showing dedication. Dedication is often just meaningless work in disguise. Be ruthless and cut the fat.”

InspirationalImportantUsedThreeAsksHoursResultsFocusCuttingActivityEssenceFollowingActiveMindsetFatsThings To DoAbstractProductiveMeaninglessDedicationDisguiseThree TimesRuthlessCapturedInventingDemonstratingCrutchesWordingInventing Things
Author:Tim Ferriss
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“Muddy language is not confined to policies alone. Each of you has seen replies to simple questions in which the meaning was lost through hopelessly obscure wording. When a person writes to the Veterans Administration, he is entitled to an easily understood, frank, and courteous reply. If our replies cannot be understood, they are not only not worth writing, but they simply create additional work.”

IfsWritingPersonsGovernmentLostLanguageSimplePolicyUnderstoodAdministrationFrankEntitledObscureVeteranConfinedMuddyCourteousWording
Author:Omar N. Bradley
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