Nouns Quotes

• One of the glories of English simplicity is the possibility of using the same word as noun and verb.

  Edward Sapir

  Simplicity, Verbs, Glory

  Edward Sapir, Pierre Swiggers (2008). “General Linguistics”, p.268, Walter de Gruyter

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• Happiness is not a noun or a verb. It's a conjunction. Connective tissue.

  Eric Weiner

  Verbs, Tissues, Conjunctions

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• I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process – an integral function of the universe.

  R. Buckminster Fuller

  Verbs, Earth, Process

  "I Seem to Be a Verb". Book by Buckminster Fuller, 1970.

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• One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.
  An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.
  The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.
  The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence.

  Kenneth Koch

  Dark, Next Day, One Day

  Kenneth Koch (2012). “On the Great Atlantic Rainway: Selected Poems 1950-1988”, p.75, Knopf

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• If the noun is good and the verb is strong, you almost never need an adjective.

  J. Anthony Lukas

  Strong, Writing, Needs

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• We all have some proper noun to blame.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Blame

  Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Tell-All”, p.129, Random House

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• Suffrage, noun. Expression of opinion by means of a ballot. The right of suffrage (which is held to be both a privilege and a duty) means, as commonly interpreted, the right to vote for the man of another man's choice, and is highly prized.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Mean, Men, Expression

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• All the facts of nature are nouns of the intellect, and make the grammar of the eternal language. Every word has a double, trebleor centuple use and meaning.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Use, Facts, Language

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt McLaughlin (2010). “The Laws of Nature: Excerpts from the Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.75, North Atlantic Books

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• The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.

  William Strunk, Jr.

  Adjectives, Weak, Built

  WILLIAM STRUNK, JR. (1959). “THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE”

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• Life is a verb, not a noun.

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  Love, Verbs, Life Is

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1904). “Human Work”, p.203, Rowman Altamira

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• I didn't know what I was. I didn't have a noun.

  Rob Sheffield

  Knows

  Rob Sheffield (2007). “Love Is a Mix Tape: Life, Loss, and What I Listened To”, p.160, Crown Archetype

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  I would have girls regard themselves not as adjectives but as nouns.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Girl, Witty, Women

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton (2003). “The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: National protection for national citizens, 1873 to 1880”, p.491, Rutgers University Press

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• I wanted to write rather than do anything else. But 'cause I left school at 15, I didn't know what a noun was, still don't.

  Nick Frost

  Writing, School, Causes

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• When I said.
  A rose is a rose is a rose.
  And then later made that into a ring I made poetry and what
  did I do I caressed completely caressed and addressed
  a noun.

  Gertrude Stein

  Rose, Poetry, Language

  Gertrude Stein (2012). “Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein”, p.22, Vintage

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• Who climbs the grammar-tree, distinctly knows Where noun, and verb, and participle grows.

  John Dryden

  Tree, Verbs, Language

  John Dryden, Joseph Warton, John Warton (1811). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden: Containing Original Poems, Tales and Translations”, p.353

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• Think Tank, noun: The shower.

  Craig Reucassel

  Thinking, Tanks, Showers

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• Poetry is all nouns and verbs.

  Marianne Moore

  Poetry, Verbs, Language

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• Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place.

  Martha Graham

  Verbs, Theater

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• Poetry is perfect verbs hunting for elusive nouns.

  J. Patrick Lewis

  Writing, Hunting, Perfect

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• The Americans are very clear, and obsessed with nouns.

  Fiona Shaw

  Obsession, Obsessed, Clear

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

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• God, to me, it seems, is a verb not a noun, proper or improper.

  R. Buckminster Fuller

  Verbs, Statistics, Biodiversity

  No More Secondhand God (1963) p. 28 (poem written in 1940)

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• I think that we all do heroic things, but hero is not a noun, it's a verb.

  Robert Downey, Jr.

  Hero, Thinking, Verbs

  "The Complete Robert Downey Jr". Interview with Cal Fussman, www.esquire.com. April 16, 2012.

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• Mother is a verb, not a noun.

  Shonda Rhimes

  Inspirational, Mother, Verbs

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• Most metaphysical words in Hopi are verbs, not nouns as in European languages.

  Benjamin Lee Whorf

  Europe, Verbs, Language

  Benjamin Lee Whorf, John Bissell Carroll (1964). “Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf”, p.61, MIT Press

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• Art is a Verb, not a Noun.

  Ernest West Basden

  Art, Verbs, Art Is

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