Fine Words Quotes

• I live on good soup, not on fine words.

  Moliere

  Food, Literature, Soup

  29 Copy quote

• Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

  Confucius

  Chinese, Vices, Confucianism

  James Legge, Confucius, Mencius, Shih ching (1867). “The Chinese Classics: The life and works of Mencius”, p.117

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• actions speak louder than words

  Becca Fitzpatrick

  Inspirational, Suicide, Wisdom

  Becca Fitzpatrick (2013). “The Complete Hush, Hush Saga: includes Hush, Hush; Crescendo; Silence and Finale”, p.659, Simon and Schuster

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• Like a fine flower, beautiful to look at but without scent, fine words are fruitless in a man who does not act in accordance with them.

  Gautama Buddha

  Beautiful, Buddhist, Flower

  9 Copy quote

• Fine words dresse ill deedes.

  George Herbert

  Fine, Ill

  George Herbert, Christopher Harvey, George Gilfillan (1857). “The poetical works of George Herbert”, p.307

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• There is a southern proverb - fine words butter no parsnips.

  Walter Scott

  Southern, Parsnips, Fine

  Sir Walter Scott (1855). “The Waverley Novels: The bride of Lammermoor. A legend of Montrose. Ivanhoe”, p.229

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• When you doubt between words, use the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic. Eschew fine words as you would rouge; love simple ones as you would the native roses on your cheek.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Love, Simple, Rose

  4 Copy quote

• The Tao is the center of the universe, the good man's treasure, the bad man's refuge. Honors can be bought with fine words, respect can be won with good deeds; but the Tao is beyond all value, and no one can achieve it. Thus, when a new leader is chosen, don't offer to help him with your wealth or your expertise. Offer instead to teach him about the Tao. Why did the ancient Masters esteem the Tao? Because, being one with the Tao, when you seek, you find; and when you make a mistake, you are forgiven. That is why everybody loves it.

  Laozi

  Mistake, Men, Leader

  4 Copy quote

• It is good food and not fine words that keeps me alive.

  Moliere

  Alive, Good Food, Fine

  'Les femmes savantes' (1672) act 2, sc. 7

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• If you ever get twenty-five years for nothing, if you find yourself wearing four number patches on your clothes, holding your hands permanently behind your back, submitting to searches morning and evening, working until you are utterly exhausted, dragged into the cooler whenever someone denounces you, trodden deeper and deeper into the ground-from the hole you're in, the fine words of the great humanists will sound like the chatter of the well-fed and free.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Morning, Years, Clothes

  10 Copy quote

• If I had the opportunity to say a fine word to all the young people of America, it would be this: Don't think too much about yourselves. Try to cultivate the habit of thinking of others; this will reward you. Nourish your minds by good reading, constant reading. Discover what your lifework is, work in which you can do most good, in which you can be happiest. Be unafraid in all things when you know you are in the right.

  Charles William Eliot

  Reading, Opportunity, Thinking

  17 Copy quote

• Fine words are traded. Noble deeds gain respect. But people who are not good, why abandon them?

  Laozi

  People, Taoism, Noble

  12 Copy quote

• Who was the blundering idiot who said 'fine words butter no parsnips'? Half the parsnips of society are served and rendered palatable with no other sauce.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Half, Sauce, Idiot

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1853). “Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero”, p.148

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• Fine words lack all meaning when we are confronted by real suffering.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, Real, Inspiration

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• Words, like glasses, obscure everything they do not make clear. Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

  Joseph Joubert

  Writing, Glasses, Language

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• Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

  Joseph Joubert

  Writing, Fine

  Joseph Joubert (1928). “Pensées and letters of Joseph Joubert”

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• Something tells me my spit wouldn't mean as much to Corr as yours would." There's a long Pause before Sean speaks. He says, "Maybe not yet." Yet! I don't think I've ever heard such a fine word before.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Mean, Thinking, Long

  4 Copy quote

• There are more important things than finding the murderer. And justice is a fine word, but it is sometimes difficult to say exactly what one means by it. In my opinion, the important thing is to clear the innocent. - Hercule Poirot

  Agatha Christie

  Mean, Justice, Important

  Agatha Christie (1974). “Murder on board: including The mystery of the Blue Train, What Mrs. McGillicuddy saw! [and] Death in the air”, Dodd Mead

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• Fine words! I wonder where you stole them.

  Jonathan Swift

  Sarcastic, Wonder, Plagiarism

  'Whitshed's Motto on his Coach' (1724) (Libertas... Freedom and the land of my birth)

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• I am not imposed upon by fine words; I can see what actions mean.

  George Eliot

  Mean, Action, I Can

  George Eliot (2006). “The Mill on the Floss: Easyread Large Edition”, p.129, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Food prices are often kept artificially high. The result is that the Millennium Development Goals set out by the United Nations at the start of the new millennium are not being reached. Fine words have not yet been turned into deeds.

  Jonathan Sacks

  Goal, Development, Deeds

  "Why Fighting Poverty and Hunger Is a Religious Duty" by Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 26, 2013.

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• Words are one thing - deeds something entirely different. Fine words are a mask to cover shady deeds. A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.

  Joseph Stalin

  Iron, Water, Different

  Joseph Stalin (1953). “Works”

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