Favorite Words

( Words of the week. )


It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. - Lena Horne

It is enough that we set out to mold the motley stuff of life into some form of our own choosing; when we do, the performance is itself the wage. - Learned Hand

You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things — to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals. - Edmund Hillary

Any clod can have the facts, but having opinions is an art. - Charles McCabe

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. - William Arthur Ward

Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight— always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary? - J. M. Barrie

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. - Pablo Picasso

Freedom is poetry, taking liberties with words, breaking the rules of normal speech, violating common sense. Freedom is violence. - Norman O. Brown

Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees. - J. Willard Marriott

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time. - Winston Churchill

After about three lessons [my] voice teacher said, 'Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way. You're a song stylist. Always do it your way.' - Johnny Cash

For words are magical formulae. They leave finger marks behind on the brain, which in the twinkling of an eye become the footprints of history. One ought to watch one's every word. - Franz Kafka

His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking, best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. - J. R. R. Tolkien

Remember, a dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream. - W. C. Fields

Speak the truth, but leave immediately after. - Slovenian proverb

The go-between wears out a thousand sandals. - Japanese proverb

'Tis a long day a day without bread. - French proverb

( Words of the week. )


Bonus: Any dictionary can call itself Webster's, and many do. The name has been in the public domain since the 1800s.


Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't 'try' to do things. You simply "must" do things. - Ray Bradbury

Pressure and stress is the common cold of the psyche. - Andrew Denton

Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal. - Voltaire

The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided. - Casey Stengel

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age. - Sophia Loren

The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him. - Russell Baker

There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to other animals as well as humans, it is all a sham. - Anna Sewell

Things are only impossible until they're not. - Jean-Luc Picard

As I grow older, I regret to say that a detestable habit of thinking seems to be getting a hold of me. - H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines

No one likes justice brought home to his own door. - Italian proverb

Speaking comes by nature, silence by understanding. - German proverb

You may poke a man's fire after you've known him for seven years. - English proverb

( Words of the week. )


One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time. - John Wanamaker

The two most engaging powers of a good author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new. - William M. Thackeray

Agatha Christie has given more pleasure in bed than any other woman. - Nancy Banks Smith

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. - Berthold Auerbach

Happiness is good health and a bad memory. - Ingrid Bergman

Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. - Ernest Hemingway

Man's naked form belongs to no particular moment in history; it is eternal, and can be looked upon with joy by the people of all ages. - Auguste Rodin

Love is a serious mental disease. - Plato

The English language is rather like a monster accordion, stretchable at the whim of the editor, compressible ad lib. - Robert Burchfield

This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in. - Theodore Roosevelt

( Words of the week. )


The cool kindliness of sheets, that soon smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss of blankets. - Rupert Brooke

I hope with all my heart there will be painting in heaven. - Jean-Baptiste Corot

Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines. - R. Buckminster Fuller

Moonlight is sculpture. - Nathaniel Hawthorne

You can't expect to hit the jackpot if you don't put a few nickels in the machine. - Flip Wilson

Every man has a sane spot somewhere. - Robert Louis Stevenson

What a delightful thing is the conversation of specialists! One understands absolutely nothing and it's charming. - Edgar Degas

Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "The Little Prince"

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it. - Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts

( Words of the week. )


People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us. - Iris Murdoch

The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum. - Havelock Ellis

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. - John Quincy Adams

Never give a party if you will be the most interesting person there. - Mickey Friedman

What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? - Ursula K. Le Guin

Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won't have to hunt for happiness. - William E. Gladstone

Harold, like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of distinct ideas. - George Eliot

The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason. - John Cage

Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war. - Norman Mailer, Armies Of The Night

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. - Albert Einstein, "Geometry and Experience"

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. - Franklin P. Jones

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. — Publilius Syrus

Language is an anonymous, collective and unconscious art; the result of the creativity of thousands of generations. - Edward Sapir

Those who have mastered etiquette, who are entirely, impeccably right, would seem to arrive at a point of exquisite dullness. - Dorothy Parker

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. - Johann von Goethe

More important than winning the election, is governing the nation. That is the test of a political party - the acid, final test. - Adlai Ewing Stevenson

When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take - choose the bolder. - W. J. Slim

The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light. - Felix Adler

I'm not afraid of insects taking over the world, and you know why? It would take about a billion ants just to AIM a gun at me, let alone fire it. And you know what I'm doing while they're aiming it at me? I just sort of slip off to the side, and then suddenly run up and kick the gun out of their hands. - Jack Handey

Lies have short legs. - German/Italian proverb

A man warned is half saved. - German proverb

One must either be the hammer or the anvil. - German proverb

( Words of the week. )

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago. - Bernard Berenson

A man can't ride on your back unless it's bent. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

The finest words in the world are only vain sounds if you cannot understand them. - Anatole France

You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds. - Henry David Thoreau

When in doubt, wear red. - Bill Blass

If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression. - Toni Morrison

The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion. - Molly Ivins

Buy your greyhound, don't rear him. - Portuguese proverb

( Words of the week. )


Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. - Winston Churchill

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. - Rachel Carson

I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them. - Jane Austen

The aeroplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy. - John Galsworthy

Let us enrich ourselves with our mutual differences. - Paul Valery

What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you. - Jean Cocteau

A graceful taunt is worth a thousand insults. - Louis Nizer

Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking. - Nicolas de Chamfort

Do not ask the name of the person who seeks a bed for the night. He who is reluctant to give his name is the one who most needs shelter. - Victor Hugo

The most interesting thing in the world is another human being who wonders, suffers and raises the questions that have bothered him to the last day of his life, knowing he will never get the answers. - Will Durant

We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today. I don't think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great. If you're hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time. - Art Buchwald

It is wonderful to be despised, if, deep down, we know we are right. - Pierre Elliott Trudeau

Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts. - Luc de Clapiers

It's not enough to bash in heads. You've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer

The greatest oaks have been little acorns. - Polish proverb

A penny is a lot of money, if you have not got a penny. - Yiddish proverb



As a special bonus this week, the ten most difficult words to translate:

Mamihlapinatapei
From Yagan, the indigenous language of the Tierra del Fuego region of South America. This word has been translated in several ways in English, always implying a wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.

Jayus
From Indonesian, meaning a joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh.

Prozvonit
In both Czech and Slovak language, this word means to call a mobile phone only to have it ring once so that the other person would call back, allowing the caller not to spend money on minutes.

Kyoikumama
In Japanese, this word refers to a mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement.

Tartle
A Scottish verb meaning to hesitate while introducing someone due to having forgotten his/her name.

Iktsuarpok
From the Inuit, meaning to go outside to check if anyone is coming.

Cafuné
From Brazilian Portuguese, meaning to tenderly run one’s fingers through someone’s hair.

Torschlusspanik
From German, this word literally means “gate-closing panic” and is used to describe the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages. This word is most frequently applied to women who race the ‘biological clock’ to wed and bear children.

Tingo
From the Pascuense language of Easter Island, it is the act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.

Ilunga
From the Tshiluba language spoken in south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, this word has been chosen by numerous translators as the world’s most untranslatable word. Ilunga indicates a person who is ready to forgive any abuse the first time it occurs, to tolerate it the second time, but to neither forgive nor tolerate a third offense.

( Words of the week. )


Men build too many walls and not enough bridges. - Isaac Newton

Nancy Reagan fell down and broke her hair. - Johnny Carson

Each time we re-read a book we get more out of it because we put more into it; a different person is reading it, and therefore it is a different book. - Muriel Clark

Language is an anonymous, collective and unconscious art; the result of the creativity of thousands of generations. - Edward Sapir

To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers. - Paul Klee

I've read some of your modern free verse and wonder who set it free. - John Barrymore

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. - Willa Cather

Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man: yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hair’s breadth of time assigned to thee live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse. - Adlai Stevenson

We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done. - Alan Turing

Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others. - Jonathan Winters

His spirits, so low but a few moments back, soared like a good niblick shot out of the bunker of Gloom. - P. G. Wodehouse, A Damsel in Distress

He who puts up with insult invites injury. - Jewish proverb

( Words of the week. )


One of the joints where I check out quotes of the day had an all-proverbs edition this week. I love it when that happens.


If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater suggest that he wear a tail. - Fran Lebowitz

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew. - Oliver Goldsmith

I think that wherever your journey takes you, there are new gods waiting there, with divine patience -- and laughter. - Susan M. Watkins

Everyone has a talent. What is rare is the cpourage to follow the talent to the dark places where it leads. - Erica Jong

I'm glad I didn't have to fight in any war. I'm glad I didn't have to pick up a gun. I'm glad I didn't get killed or kill somebody. I hope my kids enjoy the same lack of manhood. - Tom Hanks

I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean [i.e., comport] ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. - George Washington

Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so. It is not so. It is so. It is not so. - Benjamin Franklin

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. - Johann von Goethe

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. - E. B. White

There is only one sort of love, but there are a thousand copies. - François de La Rochefoucauld

Religion is not what you will get after reading all the scriptures of the world. It is not really what is grasped by the grain. It is a heart grasp. - Gandhi

It isn't necessary to have relatives in Kansas City in order to be unhappy. - Groucho Marx

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. - Louis L'Amour

Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life. - Giorgos Seferis

If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down. It's going to be the best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills you. - Dorothy Parker

Better keep yourself clean and bright. You are the window through which you must see the world. - George Bernard Shaw

One should count each day a separate life. - Seneca

Greed lessens what is gathered. - Arabic proverb

He who has choice has trouble. - Dutch proverb

Do not be in a hurry to tie what you cannot untie. - English proverb

The work will teach you how to do it. - Estonian proverb

A heart that loves is always young. - Greek proverb

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. - Irish proverb

From listening comes wisdom, and from speaking repentance. - Italian proverb

The reverse side also has a reverse side. - Japanese proverb

Epigrams succeed where epics fail. - Persian proverb

The tears of strangers are only water. - Russian proverb

Friends are lost by calling often and calling seldom. - Scottish proverb

Patience is the key to paradise. - Turkish proverb

When you eat a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree. - Vietnamese proverb

( Words of the week. )


If the truth doesn't save us, what does that say about us? - Lois McMaster Bujold

Society fails to recognize that the tension between the police and the judiciary has always been fundamental to our constitutional system. It is intentional and healthy and constitutes the real difference between a free society and a police state. - Nicholas Katzenbach

But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American War? The revolution was effected before the war commenced. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. - Geoffrey F. Abert

If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. - Samuel Adams

The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment. - Herbert Marcuse

Writing stopped being fun when I discovered the difference between good writing and bad and, even more terrifying, the difference between it and true art. And after that, the whip came down. - Truman Capote

Yes and no are very powerful words. Mean them when you say them. Respect them when you hear them. - Michael Josephson

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life. - Henri Frederic Amiel

Show me someone who never gossips, and I'll show you someone who isn't interested in people. - Barbara Walters

There are chapters in every life which are seldom read and certainly not aloud. - Carol Shields

The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim. - Edsger W. Dijkstra

I'll admit I may have seen better days, but I'm still not to be had for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut. –Margo Channing, All About Eve

Have confidence, but beware in whom. - Latin proverb

Though change be no robbery. - Malayan proverb

Make sure to send a lazy man the angel of death. - Jewish proverb

( Words of the week. )

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it. - Pablo Casals

Stuff your eyes with wonder . . . live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. - Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. - Booker T. Washington

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. - Albert Einstein

Well-ordered self-love is right and natural. - St. Thomas Aquinas

I don't trust a man who uses the word evil eighteen times in ten minutes. If you're half evil, nothing soothes you more than to think the person you are opposed to is totally evil. - Norman Mailer

Compared to the drama of words, Hamlet is a light farce. - Anatoly Liberman

I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries. - Stephen King

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost. - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

More wisdom is latent in things as they are than in all the words men use. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar. - Montaigne

You will soon break the bow if you keep it always stretched. - Phaedrus

I wish you all manner of prosperity, with a little more taste. - Alain-Rene Le Sage

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. - Henry Lewis Mencken

He who cannot do what he wishes, must needs do as he can. - Latin proverb

Everything may be repaired except the neckbone. - Italian proverb

If you want to know what God thinks of money, look at the people he gives it to. - Yiddish proverb

Life is like this: sometimes sun, sometimes rain. - Fijian proverb

( Words of the week. )

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you CAN make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all." - Lewis Carroll

I see that sensible men and conscientious men all over the world were of one religion, -- the religion of well-doing and daring, men of sturdy truth, men of integrity and feeling for others. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows. - O. Henry

Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage. - H. L. Mencken

Acting provides the fulfillment of never being fulfilled. You're never as good as you'd like to be. So there's always something to hope for. - Glenda Jackson

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed. - Winston Churchill

I am fond of music I think because it is so amoral. Everything else is moral and I am after something that isn't. I have always found moralizing intolerable. - Herman Hesse

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest. - Samuel Johnson

What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness. - George Bernard Shaw

I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time, and prevents arguments. - Oscar Wilde

You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in. - Ethel Barrymore

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. - Danny Kaye

Eschew the monumental. Shun the Epic. All the guys who can paint great big pictures can paint great small ones. - Ernest Hemingway

Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it. - Arthur Ashe

When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people. - Chinese proverb

Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet. - African proverb

Winter never rots in the sky. - Latin proverb

( Words of the week. )


Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee and I'll forgive Thy great big one on me. - Robert Frost

There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been! - Percy Bysshe Shelley

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature. - Tom Robbins

The public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual's private rights. - William Blackstone

When you get in a tight place and everything goes against you, until it seems as if you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time when the tide will turn. - Harriet Beecher Stowe

California is a tragic country - like Palestine, like every Promised Land. - Christopher Isherwood

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books. - Thomas Carlyle

The only good in pretending is the fun we get out of fooling ourselves that we fool somebody. - Booth Tarkington

You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. - John Wooden

There's a helluva distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words. - Dorothy Parker

Yogi ordered a pizza. The waitress asked How many pieces do you want your pie cut? Yogi responded, Four. I don't think I could eat eight. - Yogi Berra

Always have your hook baited; in the pool you least think, there will be a fish. - Ovid

The big thieves hang the little ones. - Czech proverb

When his head is broken he puts on his helmet. - Italian proverb

( Words of the week. )

Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, Manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man? - William Shakespeare

Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition. - Eli Khamarov

Rules are like flagpoles in a slalom race: you observe their presence religiously, skirt around them as closely as possible and never let them cut your speed. - Katherine Neville

I believe in practicing prudence at least once every two or three years. - Molly Ivins

We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness. - Pierre Corneille

No one can have a higher opinion of him than I have, and I think he's a dirty little beast. - W. S. Gilbert

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier. - Kathleen Norris

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it. - Jacob Bronowski

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so you apologize for truth. - Benjamin Disraeli

You cannot hide an eele in a sacke. - George Herbert

It is easy to halve the potato where there is love. - Irish proverb

( Words of the week, right this way. )


To and Fro

I lately lost a preposition;
It hid, I thought, beneath my chair
And angrily I cried, "Perdition!
Up from out of under there."

Correctness is my vade mecum,
And straggling phrases I abhor,
And yet I wondered, "What should he come
Up from out of under for?" – Morris Bishop

Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile. - Albert Schweitzer

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it. - Milton Friedman

Pugnacity is a form of courage, but a very bad form. - Sinclair Lewis

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. - Søren Kierkegaard

I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires. - Kahlil Gibran

Bare lists of words are found suggestive to an imaginative and excited mind. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hate television. I hate it as much as I hate peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts. - Orson Welles

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously. - Peter Ustinov

Language is fossil poetry. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable. - Leonard Bernstein

Ideas too are a life and a world. - Georg C. Lichtenberg

For when two beings who are not friends are near each other there is no meeting, and when friends are far apart there is no separation. - Simone Weil

His presents conceal a baited hook. - Latin proverb

Of all the thirty-six alternatives, running away is best. - Chinese proverb

The complete fool is half prophet. - Yiddish proverb

( I do apologize for this. )


I do not call the sod under my feet my country; but language -- religion -- government -- blood -- identity in these makes men of one country. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Start every day off with a smile and get it over with. - W. C. Fields

The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are
sober. - William Butler Yeats

It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace. - Andre Gide

Never trust the teller, trust the tale. - D. H. Lawrence

Your real security is yourself. You know you can do it, and they can't ever take that away from you. - Mae West

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation. - George Bernard Shaw

My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's. - Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892

You behold a range of exhausted volcanoes. Not a flame flickers on a single pallid crest. - Benjamin Disraeli

Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long. - Leonard Bernstein

A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book. - Ernest Hemingway

A biting cur wears a torn skin. - Latin proverb

He who listens at doors hears more than he desires. - French proverb

With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back. - Russian proverb

Guessing is missing. - Dutch proverb


And an interesting tidbit from futilitycloset.com:

* Déjà vu — the feeling of having seen an unfamiliar thing previously
* Déjà vécu — the feeling of having experienced a new situation previously
* Déjà visité — unaccountable knowledge of an unfamiliar place
* Déjà senti — a sense of "recollection" of a new idea
* Jamais vu — a sense of unfamiliarity with a familiar situation
* Presque vu — inability to summon a familiar word

Visiting a ruined English manor in 1856, Nathaniel Hawthorne felt "haunted and perplexed" by the idea that he had seen it before. He later realized that Alexander Pope had written a poem about it nearly 100 years earlier.

( Words of the week. )

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free. - Clarence Darrow

Where the storyteller is loyal, eternally and unswervingly loyal to the story, there, in the end, silence will speak. - Isak Dinesen

His hilarity was like a scream from a crevasse. - Graham Greene

The cocks may crow, but it's the hen that lays the egg. - Margaret Thatcher

He traces the steam engine all the way back to the tea kettle. - Benjamin Disraeli

Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good. - Alice May Brock

( A week plus change of words. )


Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid. - Hedy Lamarr

Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners. - Eric Hoffer

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success.... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything. - Nikola Tesla

You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky. - Amelia Earhart

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. - Eden Phillpotts

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. - Charlie McCarthy

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses. - Chinese proverb

Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter. - African proverb

( I couldn't just delete them... )

I was out of town over the weekend and the catching up has been sloooow this time, so I'm about to present a truly ridiculous amount of words. It's kind of my last hurrah here, for a whole bunch of reasons. I started the community on a total whim and what it looks like today is nothing like what I expected, but I am immensely proud of what favorite words turned out to be. Sharing words with you has given me much joy, and that is no exaggeration.

As I've said before, everyone is welcome to post whatever they like here, as long as it's about words. The welcome mat is always out, front and center.

( onelook.com word of the day, tierce )

( yourdictionary.com word of the day, contumacious )

( wordsmith.org word of the day, queen regnant )

( askoxford.com word of the day, dariole )

( dictionary.com word of the day, tatterdemalion )

( vocabvitamins.com word of the day, bijou )

( m-w.com word of the day, bogart )

( alphadictionary.com word of the day, shoal )

( yourdictionary.com word of the day, buccaneer )

( dictionary.com word of the day, malinger )

( m-w.com word of the day, fire-sale )

( oed.com word of the day, radicle )

( alphadictionary.com word of the day, unctuous )

( yourdictionary.com word of the day, antipodes )

( askoxford.com word of the day, rudaceous )

( dictionary.com word of the day, insensate )

( m-w.com word of the day, asperse )

( alphadictionary.com word of the day, logophile )

( wordsmith.org word of the day, grammatolatry )

( yourdictionary.com word of the day, paean )

( askoxford.com word of the day, paten )

( dictionary.com word of the day, supernumerary )

( m-w.com word of the day, epigone )

( vocabvitamins.com word of the day, doyen )

( wordsmith.org word of the day, catachresis )

( yourdictionary.com word of the day, onomatopoeia )

( askoxford.com word of the day, skyr )

( dictionary.com word of the day, gamine )

( m-w.com word of the day, caustic )

( vocabvitamins.com word of the day, preceptor )

( oed.com word of the day, octopus )

( alphadictionary.com word of the day, usufruct )

( wordsmith.org word of the day, parapraxis )

( askoxford.com word of the day, cantal )

( dictionary.com word of the day, vituperation )

( vocabvitamins.com word of the day, swami )

( m-w.com word of the day, natatorial )

Originality is unexplored territory. You get there by carrying a canoe -- you can't take a taxi. - Alan Alda

This tattered life is my only robe; the wind my only refuge. - Marian Mountain

Progress always involves risk; you can't steal second base and keep your foot on first. - Frederick Wilcox

There is value in everybody's gift. No matter how hard to find or strange it is. -Tori Amos

Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing. - Claude Levi-Strauss

And let a scholar all earth's volumes carry, he will be but a walking dictionary: a mere articulate clock. - George Chapman

The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. - William Shakespeare

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars. - Lee Salk

So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with. - John Locke

Give orders, and do it yourself, and you will be rid of anxiety. - Portuguese proverb

Do not choose your wife at a dance, but in the field among the harvesters. - Czech proverb

Dominies come for your wine, and officers for your daughters. - Dutch proverb

Dominie = cleric or schoolmaster. Scots. And that's a wrap, folks.