Bad Language Quotes

• The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.

  George Orwell

  Truth, Real, Political Language

  "Politics and the English Language" (1946)

  90 Copy quote

  Show source

• In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

  George Orwell

  Birthday, Lying, Political Language

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.282, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  97 Copy quote

  Show source

• Language is our way of communicating what we want and who we are. By using bad language, we diminish the divine spark within us that defines our humanity.

  Laura Schlessinger

  Wise, Wisdom, Humanity

  Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Stewart Vogel (1999). “The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God's Laws in Everyday Life”, p.69, Dr. Laura Schlessinger

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The inflated style is itself a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outlines and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

  George Orwell

  Latin, Fall, Political Language

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.282, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• I learned a long time ago that you don't have to go around using bad language and trying to hurt people to show how macho you are. That stuff won't get you anywhere, it just shows lack of vocabulary and character.

  Bobby Bowden

  Hurt, Character, Vocabulary

  Bobby Bowden, Bill Smith (1994). “More than just a game”, Thomas Nelson Inc

  39 Copy quote

  Show source

• A mind can be overthrown by words; that's the point. What is happening to the brain of a person who uses the passive, who writes, 'Delay should not be allowed to take place' instead of 'Hurry'? The user of the passive verb doesn't want a universe in which responsible agents do their acts. You see? Bad language ultimately is IMMORAL.

  Richard Mitchell

  Writing, Brain, Mind

  9 Copy quote

• Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they're not attracting attention with it.

  Harper Lee

  Children, Tkam, Attention

  Harper Lee (1960). “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• People who cannot distinguish between good and bad language, or who regard the distinction as unimportant, are unlikely to think carefully about anything else.

  Brian Reynolds Myers

  Thinking, People, Language

  5 Copy quote

• Conversation is a traffick; and if you enter into it, without some stock of knowledge, to ballance the account perpetually betwixtyou,--the trade drops at once: and this is the reasonwhy travellers have so little [good] conversation with natives,--owing to their [the natives'] suspicionthat there is nothing to be extracted from the conversationworth the trouble of their bad language.

  Laurence Sterne

  Travel, Owing, Littles

  9 Copy quote

• We use so much bad language that it forms a barrier between ourselves and the truth.

  Tom Robbins

  Use, Language, Form

  5 Copy quote

• Bad language or abuse, I never, never use, Whatever the emergency; Though 'Bother it' I may Occasionally say, I never use a big, big D : What, never? : No, never! : What never? : Well, hardly ever! : Hardly ever swears a big, big D Then give three cheers, and one cheer more, For the well-bred Captain of the Pinafore!

  Walter Raleigh

  Cheer, Giving, Abuse

  4 Copy quote

• The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things - bad language and whatever - it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition.

  George Carlin

  Religious, Ideas, Superstitions

  "Counterculture Comedian George Carlin Dies at 71". www.foxnews.com. June 23, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• With today's movies, if we took out all the bad language, we'd go back to silent films.

  Bob Hope

  Silent Films, Today, Language

  18 Copy quote

• A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics'. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.

  George Orwell

  Lying, Latin, Real

  George Orwell, Peter Hobley Davison (2001). “Orwell and politics: Animal farm in the context of essays, reviews and letters selected from the complete works of George Orwell”, Penguin Modern Classics

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• All these years there had been a Tupperware container of bad language in her head, and now she opened it and all those crisp, crunchy words were fresh and lovely, ready to be used.

  Liane Moriarty

  Years, Lovely, Tupperware

  9 Copy quote

• I am committed to writing appropriate books for the middle grades. This means no bad language, no gratuitous or explicit violence, and no sexual content beyond what you might find in a PG-rated movie – expressions of who likes whom, holding hands, and perhaps the occasional kiss. The idea that we should treat sexual orientation itself as an adults-only topic, however, is absurd. Non-heterosexual children exist. To pretend they do not, to fail to recognize that they have needs for support and validation like any child, would be bad teaching, bad writing, and bad citizenship.

  Rick Riordan

  Children, Book, Teaching

  4 Copy quote

• If you're a good numbers person, you're a bad language person.

  Frank Luntz

  Numbers, Language, Persons

  6 Copy quote

• War of the Worlds is rated PG-13. Much of the earth's population is wiped out, leaving very little time for sex or bad language.

  A. O. Scott

  Sex, War, Leaving

  "Another Terror Attack, but Not by Humans" by A. O. Scott, movies2.nytimes.com. June 29, 2005.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• He left Chainsaw behind, much to her irritation. Ronan didn't want her to learn any bad language.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Irritation, Want, Language

  Maggie Stiefvater (2013). “The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, Book 2)”, p.188, Scholastic Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness’ sake. But don’t make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles ‘em. No... you had the right answer this afternoon, but the wrong reasons. Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it. Hotheadedness isn’t.

  Harper Lee

  Children, Tkam, Sake

  "To Kill a Mockingbird". Book by Harper Lee, July 11, 1960.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't want to do an edgy show, I didn't want bad language. I think edginess is the new hackiness.

  Zach Galifianakis

  Thinking, Edginess, Want

  Source: www.hitfix.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source