Dictionary Quotes - Page 9

• A tattered copy of Johnson's large Dictionary was a great delight to me, on account of the specimens of English versifications which I found in the Introduction. I learned them as if they were so many poems. I used to keep this old volume close to my pillow; and I amused myself when I awoke in the morning by reciting its jingling contrasts of iambic and trochaic and dactylic metre, and thinking what a charming occupation it must be to "make up" verses.

  Lucy Larcom

  Morning, Thinking, Poetry

  Lucy Larcom (1961). “A New England girlhood”

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• In a partner I'm looking for an encyclopedia and a dictionary. A bit of the Boy Scouts Handbook. A person who is conscientious about the trail he leaves behind him. Love. Unconditional kindness. Basically, I'm looking for the qualities I revere in my friends.

  Renee Zellweger

  Kindness, Boys, Quality

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• In the dictionary of satyagraha, there is no enemy.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Enemy, Satyagraha

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Homer A. Jack (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi”, p.96, Courier Corporation

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• My dictionary has no such expression as a violent fight.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Fighting, Expression, Violence

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

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• The dictionary is a wonderful thing, but you can't let it push you around.

  Mary Norris

  Wonderful, Wonderful Things

  "Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen". Book by Mary Norris, April 6, 2015.

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• Music is a language, and it's like a dictionary that has a lot of words, but if you limited yourself to a couple of definitions you would be illiterate. If one limits oneself to a peculiar definition like 'new music,' 'avant-garde,' or something like that, I think it's like cutting out half the dictionary.

  Archie Shepp

  Couple, Cutting, Thinking

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• Reasonable men are the best dictionaries of conversation.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Conversation, Reasonable

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• A lexicographer, a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Reading, Lexicographer

  A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

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• Larousse Gastronomique is a veritable dictionary of cooking terms for the French kitchen. If a chef were allowed only one book, this would have to be it.

  Mario Batali

  Book, Cooking, Kitchen

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• I don't think workaholic is in the dictionary as an affliction, but it's obviously someone who has a disease, and I don't feel diseased by it. I just think that I enjoy life and life has many offerings. I feel lucky to be able to have a forum to share a lot of these ideas.

  Greg Graffin

  Thinking, Offering, Ideas

  "Greg Graffin of Bad Religion". Interview with Joshua Chaplinsky, chuckpalahniuk.net. October 18, 2010.

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• The dictionary is, however, only a rough draft.

  Monique Wittig

  Rough Drafts, Language, Rough

  Monique Wittig, Sande Zeig (1979). “Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary”, Avon Books

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• Americans and their desire to be novelists, the American novel should be listed in medical dictionaries alongside Megalomania and Obsessional Neuroses.

  Francine du Plessix Gray

  Desire, Novelists, United States

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• In the room where I work, I have a chalkboard, and as I'm going along, I write the made-up words on it. A few feet from that chalkboard is a copy of the full 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, to which I refer frequently as a source of ideas and word roots.

  Neal Stephenson

  Writing, Roots, Feet

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I bought a dictionary. First thing I did was, I looked up the word "dictionary", and it said "you're an asshole".

  Demetri Martin

  Funny, Humor, Firsts

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• I am an unmarried man, as opposed to a single man. A bachelor, according to the dictionary, is a man who has never been married. An unmarried man is not married at the moment. Many of these terms have fallen into disuse.

  Raymond Burr

  Men, Married, Single Man

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• I want to know what it means to be in love. But in my dictionary 'in love' is indefinable.

  Ellen Hopkins

  Mean, Love Is, Want

  Ellen Hopkins (2008). “Identical”, p.280, Simon and Schuster

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• Only a person with the true heart of a dictionary-writer would be lying in bed, three days after being stabbed in the gut, worrying about his P's.

  Kristin Cashore

  Lying, Heart, Worry

  Kristin Cashore (2012). “Bitterblue”, p.91, Penguin

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• Did you just use juxtaposition in a sentence?" "Yes, Sage" he said patiently. "We use it all the time with art, ... That, and I know how to use a dictionary

  Richelle Mead

  Art, Juxtaposition, Use

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• Your mission statement says Galer Street is based on global "connectitude." (You people don't just think outside the box, you think outside the dictionary!)

  Maria Semple

  Thinking, People, Boxes

  Maria Semple (2012). “Where'd You Go, Bernadette”, p.10, Hachette UK

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• Impossible is the word found only in a fool's dictionary. Wise people create opportunities for themselves and make everything possible.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Wise, Opportunity, People

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• The secret is not to betray your ignorance. Just maneuver, avoid the quicksands and obstacles, and the rest can be found in a dictionary.

  Guy de Maupassant

  Ignorance, Secret, Obstacles

  Guy de Maupassant (2016). “Bel Ami”, p.8, Guy de Maupassant

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• The Red Queen shook her head. "You may call it 'nonsense' if you like," she said, "but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!

  Lewis Carroll

  Queens, Would Be, May

  1871 Through the Looking-Glass, ch.2,'The Garden of Live Flowers'.

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• The point,' Ms. Conyers continued, "is that no word had one specific definition. Maybe in the dictionary, but not in real life.

  Sarah Dessen

  Real, Real Life, Definitions

  Sarah Dessen (2008). “Lock and Key”, p.47, Penguin

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• I had a cousin once who lived in your dictionary, inside the binding, and there was a tiny hole which he used for a door, and it led out between trichotomy and trick. Now what do you think of that? It was only a few minutes walk to trigger, then over the page to trinity, trinket and trional, and there my cousin used to fall asleep.

  Janet Frame

  Cousin, Fall, Thinking

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• Empty teacups gathered around her and dictionary pages fell at her feet.

  Nicole Krauss

  Feet, Pages, Empty

  Nicole Krauss (2006). “The History of Love: A Novel”, p.192, W. W. Norton & Company

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