Dictionary Quotes - Page 11

• I was asking about lust, wasnʼt I? I was fairly certain of it. But isnʼt love supposed to come before lust? It does in the dictionary.

  Franny Billingsley

  Lust, Doe, Asking

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• I decide that sometimes definitions are wrong. Even if they're written in a dictionary. Identities aren't always separate and distinct. Sometimes they ARE wrapped up with others. Sometimes, for a few minutes, maybe they can even be shared. And if I am ever fortunate enough to return to Mr. Bender's garden, I wonder if the birds will see that piece of him that is wrapped up in me.

  Mary E. Pearson

  Garden, Bird, Identity

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• Now a Jew, in the dictionary, is one who is descended from the ancient tribes of Judea, or one who is regarded as descended from that tribe. That's what it says in the dictionary; but you and I know what a Jew is - One Who Killed Our Lord. And although there should be a statute of limitations for that crime, it seems that those who neither have the actions nor the gait of Christians, pagan or not, will bust us out, unrelenting dues, for another deuce.

  Lenny Bruce

  Christian, Deuces, Tribes

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• My language limitations here are real. My vocabulary is adequate for writing notes and keeping journals but absolutely useless for an active moral life. If I really knew this language, there would surely be in my head, as there is in Webster's or the Dictionary of American Slang, that unreducible verb designed to tell a person like me what to do next.

  Grace Paley

  Real, Writing, Vocabulary

  Grace Paley (2014). “Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories”, p.85, Macmillan

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• In the secret pocket, she often kept a small pocket dictionary, which she would take out whenever she encountered a word she did not know.

  Daniel Handler

  Secret, Pockets, Knows

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• me: why is it upset? shouldn't it be downset? gideon: i will file a lawsuit against the dictionaries first thing tomorrow morning. we're going to tear merriam a new asshole and throw webster inside of it.

  David Levithan

  Morning, Upset, Tears

  John Green, David Levithan (2010). “Will Grayson, Will Grayson”, p.165, Penguin

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• People are under the impression that dictionaries legislate language. What a dictionary does is keep track of usages over time.

  Steven Pinker

  Track, People, Doe

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• There are so many who know more than I do, who understand the world better than I do. I would be truly learned, a great scholar, if only I could retain everything I've learned from those I have known. But then would I still be me? And isn't all that only words? Words grow old, too; they change their meaning and their usage. They get sick just as we do; they die of their wounds and then they are relegated to the dust of dictionaries. And where am I in all this?

  Elie Wiesel

  Dust, Sick, Would Be

  Elie Wiesel (2007). “The Time of the Uprooted: A Novel”, p.17, Schocken

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• They've listed my name in the dictionary - 'Imeldific' is used to mean ostentatious extravagance... But the truth will prevail.

  Imelda Marcos

  Mean, Names, Truth Will Prevail

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

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• Look up the word role in the dictionary and you'll see it means playing a part. That's why I call myself a real model.

  Shaquille O'Neal

  Real, Mean, Roles

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• I have been called a curmudgeon, which my obsolescent dictionary defines as a "surly, illmannered, badtempered fellow." ... Nowadays, curmudgeon is likely to refer to anyone who hates hypocrisy, cant, sham, dogmatic ideologies, the pretenses and evasions of euphemism, and has the nerve to point out unpleasant facts and takes the trouble to impale these sins on the skewer of humor and roast them over the fires of empiric fact, common sense, and native intelligence. In this nation of bleating sheep and braying jackasses, it then becomes an honor to be labeled curmudgeon.

  Edward Abbey

  Hate, Fire, Sheep

  "A Voice Crying in the Wilderness".

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• My job involves searching for 'lost' quotations - that is, trying to find out who came up with a quotable saying that lingers in someone's mind and which they wish to use for their own purpose and which they cannot find in conventional dictionaries of quotation.

  Nigel Rees

  Jobs, Mind, Wish

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• Milton took vaudeville, which, if you look up 'vaudeville' in the dictionary, right alongside of it, it says 'Milton Berle' - and he made it just a tremendous party.

  Alan King

  Party, Looks, Vaudeville

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• I am a part of the old school where I feel that purity of the language should be retained. But English is a constantly evolving language where new words are being added to the dictionary, so I don't see any harm in experimenting with the language. Only poor editing standards need to be improved.

  Ashwin Sanghi

  School, Editing, Needs

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• For my Oxford degree, I had to translate French and German philosophy (as it turned out, Descartes and Kant) at sight without a dictionary. That meant Germany for my first summer vacation, to learn the thorny language on my own.

  Paul Engle

  Summer, Philosophy, Vacation

  Paul Engle (1996). “A lucky American childhood”, Univ of Iowa Pr

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• When you look in the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is? It could be remember.Because all of you have made covenants-you know what to do and you know how to do it-our greatest need is to remember.

  Spencer W. Kimball

  Important, Needs, Looks

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• Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Philosophy, History

  Letter to Francesco Sastres, 21 Aug. 1784

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• I do love perusing the dictionary to find how many words I don't use - words that have specific, sharp, focused meaning. I also love the sound of certain words. I love the sound of the word pom-pom.

  Geoffrey Rush

  Sound, Use, Certain

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• You need to release yourself of any expectation of what that material should be. Just start letting it be what it's naturally evolving into, even if it means just pulling words out of the dictionary and laying them one after another. Words are everywhere.

  Antony Hegarty

  Mean, Expectations, Needs

  Source: thequietus.com

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• Favorite books and authors while growing up - I'd need a book to list them all. For the sake of brevity: Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, Victor Hugo, world's mythology, the Arthurian legends. And the unabridged dictionary. And they're still my favorites. They get better each time I read them.

  Lloyd Alexander

  Growing Up, Book, Get Better

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• I just wish they'd put a new word in the dictionary bigger than love because love just doesn't describe what I feel.

  John Mayer

  Love Is, Wish, Bigger

  "John Mayer: Any Given Thursday". Video, www.imdb.com. 2003.

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• I used to teach. I quote American history and I love words. I've read the dictionary I don't know how many times throughout my life. People say, "You read the dictionary?" I say, "Yes, and you can really believe it."

  Jackee Harry

  Believe, People, American History

  "Jackée Harry on 227, Ladybugs, and why she wants to be the next Maggie Smith". Interview with Marah Eakin, tv.avclub.com. February 26, 2016.

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• Back in the 19th century, our marketing folks decided to play up the refined usage angle because prescriptivism was very popular: our dictionary is where you go to learn anything about anything. That really set the tone in North America for how people responded to dictionaries.

  Kory Stamper

  People, Marketing, 19th Century

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• The word gratitude is not part of the Hollywood dictionary.

  Harry Cohn

  Gratitude, Hollywood

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

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• A lot of people thought oh, we caught the dictionary in racism, or all it takes is a whole bunch of people saying that a word is bad for the dictionary to change it. That's not the case. For nude, things that are called nude color, that color palate has broadened very recently, in the last maybe seven to 10 years, and now covers all skin tones.

  Kory Stamper

  Racism, People, Skins

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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