Bad Word Quotes

• We live in a world where amnesia is the most wished-for state. When did history become a bad word?

  John Guare

  Past, World, States

  52 Copy quote

• I like people who can make you laugh without using vulgarity, or bad words.

  Michael Jackson

  People, Laughing, Vulgarity

  20 Copy quote

• Bad words don't exist, but words with bad intentions behind.

  Roberto Fontanarrosa

  Intention, Bad Intentions, Behinds

  10 Copy quote

• Elite is not a bad word, it's an aspirational one.

  Aaron Sorkin

  Elites

  "Aaron Sorkin At Golden Globes: 'Elite Is Not A Bad Word, It’s An Aspirational One'". www.mediaite.com. January 17, 2011.

  3 Copy quote

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• I don't know why people are so reluctant to say they're feminists. Could it be any more obvious that we still live in a patriarchal world when feminism is a bad word?

  Ellen Page

  Powerful, People, Feminist

  30 Copy quote

• A bad word from a colleague can darken a whole day. We need encouragement a lot more than we admit, even to ourselves.

  Orson Welles

  Encouragement, Needs, Colleagues

  Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich (1992). “This is Orson Welles”, HarperCollins Publishers

  25 Copy quote

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• I don’t want to react because I don’t want them to know it’s a bad word, but I want to encourage them to talk so I’m like, ‘That’s good!’

  Jerry O'Connell

  Want, Knows

  4 Copy quote

• A bad word that I can't say that starts with f.

  Jennifer Lawrence

  I Can

  "Overheard backstage at the Oscars" by Alan Duke, www.cnn.com. February 25, 2013.

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• I've never heard my dad say a bad word about anybody. He always keeps his emotions in check and is a true gentleman. I was taught that losing it was indulgent, a selfish act.

  Hugh Jackman

  Dad, Selfish, Gentleman

  57 Copy quote

• It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love ... You can't own a human being.

  Toni Morrison

  Love You, Humans, Human Beings

  Toni Morrison (1987). “Sula”

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• Being honest, if I had a daughter I wouldn't want her listening to a Nicki Minaj CD until she was a certain age. Even when I meet my fans and they tell me they are 12, I cringe a little. I always say, 'Listen. I don't want you saying the bad words, put school first.'

  Nicki Minaj

  Daughter, School, Cds

  42 Copy quote

• I've always said, 'I am a selector, I am not defector' - the first few phrases in English I learned. I said I hate 'defector'; something defective about the people. It's a bad word.

  Mikhail Baryshnikov

  Hate, People, Phrases

  13 Copy quote

• Always when you go to a new country and they teach you bad words, you just say them without knowing the value and people look at you because you didn't know that value of them.

  Antonio Banderas

  Country, Knowing, People

  3 Copy quote

• I always thought that "humanist" was a good word long before I understood that anyone thought it was a bad word.

  Gloria Steinem

  Long, Humanist, Understood

  "The Humanist Interview with Gloria Steinem" by Jennifer Bardi, thehumanist.com. August 14, 2012.

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• For many, 'desire' is a bad word, something we're supposed to 'give up for God.' That kind of thinking can be really destructive because it teaches people to deny their hearts, their true selves.

  Rob Bell

  Giving Up, Heart, Thinking

  "Hello, Rob Bell - The Interview". Interview with Skye Jethani, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 1, 2012.

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• I'm a mad lover of sport. You cannot say a bad word to me about sports. So I know business is involved and I know it can be cynical, and, of course, I watch it, but for me it's pure.

  Hugh Jackman

  Sports, Business, Mad

  3 Copy quote

• Once when I was 16 I had my car taken away from me for being past curfew. Oh, and I said a bad word once, and I actually did get my mouth washed out with soap.

  Ashlee Simpson

  Taken, Past, Car

  106 Copy quote

• In my vocabulary there are two bad words: art and good taste.

  Helmut Newton

  Art, Vocabulary, Two

  8 Copy quote

• There are some people that aren't into all the words. There are some people who would have you not use certain words. Yeah, there are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them that you can't say on television. What a ratio that is. 399,993 to seven. They must really be bad. They'd have to be outrageous, to be separated from a group that large. All of you over here, you seven. Bad words. That's what they told us they were, remember? 'That's a bad word.' You know bad words. Bad thoughts. Bad intentions.

  George Carlin

  People, Groups, Use

  "George Carlin (1937–2008): Legendary Comedian Challenged Status Quo Throughout 50-Year Career". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. June 24, 2008.

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• When I wrote 'The Giver,' it contained no so-called 'bad words.' It was set, after all, in a mythical, futuristic, and Utopian society. Not only was there no poverty, divorce, racism, sexism, pollution, or violence in the world of 'The Giver'; there was also careful attention paid to language: to its fluency, precision, and power.

  Lois Lowry

  Divorce, Racism, Attention

  7 Copy quote

• I wouldn't let anyone say a bad word about Cheryl Cole.

  Luke Pasqualino

  3 Copy quote

• When I came back to the United States, I decided that if you could use propaganda for war, you could certainly use it for peace. And "propaganda" got to be a bad word because of the Germans using it, so what I did was to try and find some other words so we found the word "councelor of public relations".

  Edward Bernays

  War, Trying, United States

  "The Century of the Self". Documentary, 2002.

  89 Copy quote

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• For evil deeds may better than bad words be borne.

  Edmund Spenser

  Evil, Deeds, May

  3 Copy quote

• I think we all have the power to name ourselves. I try to call people what it is they wish to be called. But we can take the sting out of epithets and bad words by using them.

  Gloria Steinem

  Thinking, Names, People

  "The Humanist Interview with Gloria Steinem" by Jennifer Bardi, thehumanist.com. August 14, 2012.

  7 Copy quote

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• I spend so much time hating (my body) but it never says a bad word about me

  Tim Minchin

  Hate, Body

  44 Copy quote