Dictionary Quotes

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  Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Honesty, Integrity, Writing

  1847; quoted by propagandist and language maven William Safire, New York Times Magazine, 13 December 1998.

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• Most poets are elitist dregs more concerned with proving their skill with a dictionary than communicating ideas with impact.

  Henry Rollins

  Impact, Skills, Ideas

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• Words fascinate me. They always have. For me, browsing in a dictionary is like being turned loose in a bank.

  Eddie Cantor

  Writing, Library, Browsing

  Eddie Cantor (1959). “The way I see it”

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• I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.

  Steven Wright

  Funny, Life, Reading

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• If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word.

  Dave Barry

  Literature, Enough, Bigs

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• Always remember that striving and struggle precede success even in the dictionary.

  Sarah Ban Breathnach

  Success, Struggle, Inspiration

  Sarah Ban Breathnach (2012). “Simple Abundance”, Random House

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  The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

  Vince Lombardi

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

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• If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?

  Steven Wright

  Funny, Humor, Writing

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• Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Inspirational, Positive, Wisdom

  "Famous Sayings and their Authors" by Edward Latham, (p. 138), 1906.

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• The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.

  Jean Cocteau

  Order, Literature, Masterpiece

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• The dictionary contains no metaphors.

  Paul Ricoeur

  Metaphor

  Paul Ricoeur (2004). “The Rule of Metaphor: The Creation of Meaning in Language”, p.112, Routledge

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• Dictionary: Opinion presented as truth in alphabetical order.

  John Ralston Saul

  Teacher, Teaching, Order

  John Ralston Saul (2012). “The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense”, p.105, Simon and Schuster

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• As far as I'm concerned, the only difference between fact and what most people call fiction is about fifteen pages in the dictionary.

  Charles de Lint

  Differences, People, Fiction

  "Dreams Underfoot : The Newford Collection". Book by Charles de Lint, 2003.

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• A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.

  John Henry Newman

  Memories, Math, Mind

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• Nothing, she now knew, could be defined in exclusion, and every bug, pencil, and grass blade was a dictionary in itself, requiring the definitions of all things to fulfill its own.

  Anthony Marra

  Definitions, Bugs, Exclusion

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• Opinions are not to be learned by rote, like the letters of an alphabet, or the words of a dictionary. They are conclusions to be formed, and formed by each individual in the sacred and free citadel of the mind, and there enshrined beyond the arm of law to reach, or force to shake; ay! and beyond the right of impertinent curiosity to violate, or presumptuous arrogance to threaten.

  Frances Wright

  Law, Arrogance, Curiosity

  Frances Wright (1831). “Course of Popular Lectures,”, p.132

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• IMBECILITY, n. A kind of divine inspiration, or sacred fire affecting censorious critics of this dictionary.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Inspiration, Fire, Divinity

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.117, University of Georgia Press

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• Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.

  Vince Lombardi

  Motivational, Success, Football

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• Dictionary: a malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic

  Ambrose Bierce

  Growth, Language, Literary Devices

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “The Devil's Dictionary (or The Cynic's Wordbook: Unabridged with all the Definitions)”, p.42, e-artnow

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• There is a breed of fashion models who weigh no more than an abridged dictionary.

  Dave Barry

  Fashion, Fashion Model, Models

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• The word 'romance,' according to the dictionary, means excitement, adventure, and something extremely real. Romance should last a lifetime.

  Billy Graham

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Billy Graham (1966). “The Quotable Billy Graham”

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• Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Names, Patriotism, Ambitious

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.160, 谷月社

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• Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

  Khalil Gibran

  Pain, Reading Poetry, Joy

  Khalil Gibran “The New Frontier and Sand and Foam”, Library of Alexandria

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• Republican comes in the dictionary just after reptile and just above repugnant.

  Julia Roberts

  Reptiles, Republican

  "Hollywood’s Celebrity Bush Bashers" by Michelle Malkin, capitalismmagazine.com. March 24, 2001.

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• Dictionaries stop where the heart starts.

  David Foenkinos

  Heart

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