Dictionary Quotes - Page 4

• There is a certain blend of courage, integrity, character and principle which has no satisfactory dictionary name but has been called different things at different times in different countries. Our American name for it is "guts."

  Louis Adamic

  Country, Courage, Integrity

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• The English language has about 450,000 commonly used words, but more may be needed. What to you call someone who has lost a sibling or had a miscarriage? Or a gay person whose partner has died? Or an elderly person who has lost every friend and relative? So many heartaches can't be found in the dictionary.

  Jeffrey Zaslow

  Sibling, Miscarriage, Gay

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• Nonsense, n. The objections that are urged against this excellent dictionary.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Nonsense, Excellent, Objections

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.85, Courier Corporation

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• According to the dictionary, knock has two definitions: "to strike something with a sharp blow," and "to find fault with, a harsh and often petty criticism." Perhaps in human relationships both of these meanings could apply. Almost all men will respond to sincere praise and rebel at harsh and cutting criticisms.

  Marvin J. Ashton

  Cutting, Blow, Men

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• I wonder what the difference between love and control is, but I'm afraid to look those words up in a dictionary.

  Kevin Sampsell

  Differences, Looks, Wonder

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• The final lesson a writer learns is that everything can nourish the writer. The dictionary, a new word, a voyage, an encounter, a talk on the street, a book, a phrase learned.

  Anais Nin

  Book, Writing, Journey

  "French Writers of the Past" by Carol A. Dingle, (p. 126), 2000.

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• I love learning about different dialects and I own all sorts of regional and time-period slang dictionaries. I often browse through relevant ones while writing a story. I also read a lot of diaries and oral histories.

  Ron Rash

  Writing, Different, Diaries

  "This Week in Fiction: Ron Rash" by Deborah Treisman, www.newyorker.com. May 9, 2011.

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• To observe the world carefully, to write a lot and often, on a schedule if necessary, to use the dictionary a lot, to look up word origins, to analyze closely the work of writers you admire, to read not only contemporaries but writers of the past, to learn at least one foreign language, to live an interesting life outside of writing.

  Lydia Davis

  Writing, Past, Interesting

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• The trouble with the dictionary is that you have to know how a word is spelled before you can look it up to see how it is spelled.

  Will Cuppy

  Looks, Trouble, Know How

  Will Cuppy (1951). “How to Get from January to December”

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• Weird itself, even in the dictionary, is just something that is different and unexplainable. A weirdo is someone who follows their heart. Im definitely weird, aint nothing wrong with that.

  Kid Cudi

  Heart, Different, Weirdo

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• We never say so much as when we do not quite know what we want to say. We need few words when we have something to say, but all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice when we have nothing to say and want desperately to say it.

  Eric Hoffer

  Needs, Want, Few Words

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• One piece of advice can be universally handed out, and it applies equally to speaking, understanding, reading, and writing. If in the course of any of these language activities, you run across words whose meaning or use baffles you, don't by-pass them. Look them up in the dictionary and familiarize yourself with them.

  Mario Pei

  Running, Reading, Writing

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• I hope that I state your case fairly: One of my great fears is misrepresenting you, even to myself, now that you are not here to set me right. The truth is that you did not believe in idealism. All love was suspect; even a saint's was just differed self-interest. And it was impossible to argue without sounding either sentimental or naive. Cynicism has all the smart words on it's side; idealism uses a nursery school dictionary. And you studied early to disguise your childhood pain. But it is not universal.

  Michael Arditti

  Pain, Smart, Believe

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• Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue... I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

  Elmore Leonard

  Reading, Writing, Lines

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• In the dictionary of the seeker of truth there is no such thing as being "not successful." He is or should be an irrepressible optimist because of his immovable faith in the ultimate victory of Truth, which is God.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Truth, Successful, Victory

  Mahatma Gandhi (1976). “Collected Works”

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• My work is play. And I play when I design. I even looked it up in the dictionary, to make sure that I actually do that, and the definition of “play,” number one, was “engaging in a childlike activity or endeavor,” and number two was “gambling.” And I realize I do both when I’m designing.

  Paula Scher

  Gambling, Play, Two

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• Cults use our vocabulary, but they don't use our dictionary.

  Charles R. Swindoll

  Vocabulary, Use, Cult

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• Look up the definition of rejection in the dictionary, get really comfortable with it, and then maybe you can go into acting.

  Loni Anderson

  Rejection, Acting, Looks

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I'll always take Scrabble and chess if I'm going filming. But I do have the Scrabble dictionary, which can be infuriating for other players.

  Saffron Burrows

  Player, Chess, Scrabble

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• One dictionary that I consulted remarks that "natural history" now commonly means the study of animals and plants "in a popular and superficial way," meaning popular and superficial to be equally damning adjectives. This is related to the current tendency in the biological sciences to label every subdivision of science with a name derived from the Greek. "Ecology" is erudite and profound; while "natural history" is popular and superficial. Though, as far as I can see, both labels apply to just about the same package of goods.

  Marston Bates

  Mean, Science, Animal

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• What advice do you have for writers working on their first novels?If you feel called to write a book, consider it a gift. Look around you. What assistance is the universe offering you as support? I was given an amazing mentor, a poet, Eleanor Drewry Dolan, who taught me the importance of every word. To my utter amazement, there were times she found it necessary to consult three dictionaries to evaluate one word.

  Kathleen Grissom

  Book, Writing, Offering

  Kathleen Grissom (2014). “The Kitchen House: A Novel”, p.376, Simon and Schuster

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• Some People think 'coven' is a word for a group of witches, and it's true that's what the dictionary says. But the real word for a group of witches is 'an argument'.

  Terry Pratchett

  Real, Thinking, People

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• On the analogy of 'Dictionary Johnson,' we call Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the just-published Yale Book of Quotations (well worth the $50 price), 'Quotationeer Shapiro.' Shapiro does original research, earning his 1,067-page volume a place on the quotation shelf next to Bartlett's and Oxford's.

  William Safire

  Book, Yale, Editors

  "'To - Be' or Not 'To - Be'" by William Safire, www.nytimes.com. November 26, 2006.

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• The dictionary describes a selfish person as one who is 'concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself: seeking pleasure or well-being without regard for others.' May we add, a selfish person is often one who refers to 'I,' 'me,' and 'mine' rather than to 'we,' 'ours,' 'yours,' or 'theirs.' This person is anxious to be in the limelight, to be on center stage in life's little dramas. He or she may be a poor listener, or a conversation monopolizer. Selfishness is the great unknown sin. No selfish person ever thought himself to be selfish.

  H. Burke Peterson

  Drama, Selfish, Add

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• In Spain, attempting to obtain a chicken salad sandwich, you wind up with a dish whose name, when you look it up in your Spanish-English dictionary, turns out to mean: Eel with big abcess.

  Dave Barry

  Food, Mean, Wind

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