Nouns Quotes - Page 3

• Is there a God? No. God is a verb, not a noun.

  Micky Dolenz

  Verbs

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• while there are 'women writers' there are not, and have never been, 'men writers.' This is an empty category, a class without specimens; for the noun 'writer' - the very verb 'writing' - always implies masculinity.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Writing, Men, Class

  Joyce Carol Oates (1989). “(Woman) writer: occasions and opportunities”, Plume

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• The breakdown of our language, evident in the misuse, i.e., the misunderstanding of nouns and adjectives, is most grave, though perhaps not so conspicuous, in the handling of prepositions, those modest little connectives that hold the parts of a phrase or a sentence together. They are the joints of any language, what make it, literally, articulate.

  Mary McCarthy

  Together, Adjectives, Phrases

  Mary McCarthy (1985). “Occasional prose”, Harcourt

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• diseases, as all experience shows, are adjectives, not noun substantives.

  Florence Nightingale

  Adjectives, Disease, Illness

  Florence Nightingale (1860). “Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not”, p.47

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• The Hebrews have a saying that God is more delighted in adverbs than in nouns; it is not so much the matter that is done, but the matter how it is done, that God minds. Not how much, but how well! It is the well-doing that meets with a well-done. Let us therefore serve God, not nominally or verbally, but adverbially.

  Ralph Venning

  Mind, Done, Matter

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• Does it really matter if I choose the bus over a BMW, and generic over Gucci? Because the car, the wardrobe, the zip code-those are just nouns, things that are fun to have around, sure, but in the end, they have nothing to do with the real me. Nothing to do with who I really am.

  Alyson Noel

  Fun, Real, Bmw

  Alyson Noel (2013). “The Immortals Bundle 1-3: The Immortals: Evermore, The Immortals: Blue Moon and The Immortals: Shadowland”, p.447, Pan Macmillan

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• [On suicide:] It's the only cause of death that can be used as a noun to describe the dead person. If you die of cancer you are not called 'a cancer.' If someone else shoots you, you are not referred to as 'a murder.' But if you shoot yourself, you are labeled as a suicide. Your death becomes your definition.

  Joan Wickersham

  Suicide, Cancer, Causes

  Joan Wickersham (2009). “The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order”, p.204, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The important thing is not the planning of an Index Verborum Prohibitorum of current noble nouns, but rather the examination of their linguistic function.

  Theodor Adorno

  Important, Noble, Examination

  Theodor W. Adorno (1973). “The Jargon of Authenticity”, p.6, Northwestern University Press

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• Honesty is an active verb, not a passive noun. Go out of your way to be truthful, beginning with the things that you say to yourself.

  Joe Tye

  Honesty, Verbs, Way

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• Game, noun: Any unserious occupation designed for the relaxation of busy people and the distraction of idle ones. It's used to take people to whom we have nothing to say off our hands, and sometimes even ourselves.

  Etienne Bonnot de Condillac

  Games, Hands, People

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• A painting to me is primarily a verb, not a noun, an event first and only secondarily an image.

  Elaine de Kooning

  Events, Verbs, Firsts

  "It is", No.4, Magazine for Abstract Art, Second Half Publishing Co., New York pp. 29, 30, Autumn, 1959.

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• A mathematician is a magician who converts adjectives into nouns: continuous into continuum, infinite into infinity, infinitesimal into location, 0D into point, 1D into line, curved into geodesic.

  Bill Gaede

  Location, Infinity, Adjectives

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• If you can't illustrate 'it', 'it' doens't belong in Physics as a noun! You can't put an article in front. You can't put a verb after!

  Bill Gaede

  Verbs, Physics, Articles

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• What action could bodies and substances have if they were not named in a further increase of dignity where common nouns become proper nouns?

  Gaston Bachelard

  Substance, Body, Action

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• But oh! the Latin!-Madame, you can really have no idea of what a mess it is. The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin. Lucky dogs! they already knew in their cradles the nouns ending in im. I on the contrary had to learn it by heart, in the sweat of my brow.

  Heinrich Heine

  Dog, Latin, Heart

  Heinrich Heine (1871). “Pictures of travel,”, p.183

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• Here is what I'm trying to tell you: Adult isn't a noun, it's a verb. It's the act of making correctly those small decisions that fill our day. It is one that you can practice, and that can be done in concrete steps. And if you slip up and have Diet Coke for breakfast, no one busts in and snatches away your Adult card. Just move forward and have milk tomorrow.

  Kelly Williams Brown

  Moving, Practice, Decision

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• Whoever has power takes over the noun - and the norm - while the less powerful get an adjective.

  Gloria Steinem

  Powerful, Adjectives, Language

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• I am still studying verbs and the mystery of how they connect nouns. I am more suspicious of adjectives than at any other time in all my born days.

  Carl Sandburg

  Adjectives, Verbs, Study

  Carl Sandburg (2003). “The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg”, p.31, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• anything being perceived as being superior takes the noun. And everything that isn't, that's judged to be inferior, requires an adjective. So there are black novelists and novelists. There are women physicians and physicians. Male nurses and nurses.

  Gloria Steinem

  Nurse, Racism, Black

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• And there are also languages that divide nouns into much more specific genders. The African language Supyire from Mali has five genders: humans, big things, small things, collectives, and liquids. Bantu languages such as Swahili have up to ten genders, and the Australian language Ngan’gityemerri is said to have fifteen different genders, which include, among others, masculine human, feminine human, canines, non-canine animals, vegetables, drinks, and two different genders for spears (depending on size and material).

  Guy Deutscher

  Animal, Vegetables, Two

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• Genius, throughout history, has been found difficult to classify because it varies in amount: It's rare to find a genius in the context of the noun, but most people, if not all, have a bit of genius in them in the context of the adjective.

  Criss Jami

  People, Adjectives, Genius

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.31, Criss Jami

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• To me, Faith is not just a noun but also a verb

  Jimmy Carter

  Verbs

  Jimmy Carter (2011). “Living Faith”, p.4, Three Rivers Press

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• I spent months searching for some secret code before I realized that common sense has nothing to do with it. Hysteria, psychosis, torture, depression: I was told that if something is unpleasant it's probably feminine. This encouraged me, but the theory was blown by such masculine nouns as murder, toothache, and rollerblade. I have no problem learning the words themselves, it's the sexes that trip me up and refuse to stick.

  David Sedaris

  Sex, Psychosis, Hysteria

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• As real as,' said Eddie. 'As real as what?' said Jack. 'Wish I knew,' said Eddie. 'But I can't do corroborative nouns. None of us are perfect, are we? I can get started. As big as, as obscene as, as foul as. But I can't get any further. But that's life for you again. As unfair as...

  Robert Rankin

  Real, Perfect, Wish

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• Theater used to be a verb; it used to be an act. But nowadays it is just a noun. It is a place.

  Martha Graham

  Drama, Verbs, Used

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