Tongue Quotes - Page 37

• I hate the uncultivated crowd and keep them at a distance. Favour me by your tongues (keep silence).
  [Lat., Odi profanum vulgus et arceo.
  Favete linguis.]

  Horace

  Hate, Distance, Silence

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• The men are mostly so slow, their thoughts overrun 'em, an' they can only catch 'em by the tail. I can count a stocking-top while a man's getting's tongue ready; an' when he outs wi' his speech at last, there's little broth to be made on't. It's your dead chicks take the longest hatchin'.

  George Eliot

  Men, Tails, Ems

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.462, Delphi Classics

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• An English tongue, if refined to a certain standard, might perhaps be fixed forever.

  Jonathan Swift

  Forever, Might, Language

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• One with more of soul in his face than words on his tongue.

  William Wordsworth

  Soul, Faces, Timidity

  William Wordsworth, “The Farmer Of Tilsbury Vale”

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• Death? Translated into the heavenly tongue, that word means life!

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Death, Mean, Heavenly

  Henry Ward Beecher (1855). “Star Papers: Or, Experiences of Art and Nature”, p.213, New York : Boston : J.C. Derby ; Phillips, Sampson & Company

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• Tattletales, and those who listen to their slander, by my good will, should all be hanged. The former by their tongues, the latter by their ears.
  [Lat., Homines qui gestant, quique auscultant crimina, si meo arbitratu liceat, omnes pendeant gestores linguis, auditores auribus.]

  Plautus

  Gossip, Ears, Should

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• Our favorites are few; since only what rises from the heart reaches it, being caught and carried on the tongues of men wheresoever love and letters journey.

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Book, Heart, Journey

  Amos Bronson Alcott (1868). “Tablets”

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• Nothing shows the kind of fool you are as quick as your tongue.

  Kate Langley Bosher

  Talking, Speech, Fool

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• Heroism is no extempore work of transient impulse--a rocket rushing fretfully up to disturb the darkness by which, after a moment's insulting radiance, it is ruthlessly swallowed up,--but a steady fire, which darts forth tongues of flame. It is no sparkling epigram of action, but a luminous epic of character.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Character, Epic, Rushing

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• A politician weakly and amiably in the right is no match for a politician tenaciously and pugnaciously in the wrong. You cannot, by tying an opinion, to a man's tongue, make him the representative of that opinion; and at the close of any battle for principles, his name will be found neither among the dead nor among the wounded, but among the missing.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Men, Names, Missing

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• Living authors, therefore, are usually, bad companions. If they have not gained character, they seek to do so by methods often ridiculous, always disgusting; and if they have established a character, they are silent for fear of losing by their tongue what they have acquired by their pen--for many authors converse much more foolishly than Goldsmith, who have never written half so well.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Character, Half, Losing

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.158

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• If wealth come, beware of him, the smooth, false friend! There is treachery in his proffered hand; his tongue is eloquent to tempt; lust of many harms is lurking in his eye; he hath a hollow heart; use him cautiously.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Eye, Heart, Hands

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1857). “The Crock of Gold, and Other Tales”, p.106

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• O this itch of the ear, that breaks out at the tongue! Were not curiosity so over-busy, detraction would soon be starved to death.

  Douglas William Jerrold

  Curiosity, Break Out, Ears

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• Keep skid chains on your tongue. Say less than you think. Cultivate a pleasant voice. How you say it is often more important than what you say.

  Ann Landers

  Thinking, Talking, Voice

  Ann Landers (1981). “Ann Lander's Encyclopedia, A to Z: Improve Your Life Emotionally, Medically, Sexually, Socially, Spiritually”, Ballantine Books

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• Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.

  William Hazlitt

  Art, Silence, Quality

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1472, Delphi Classics

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• The pen is the tongue of the hand; a silent utterer of words for the eye.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Eye, Hands, Silent

  Henry Ward Beecher (1862). “Eyes and Ears”, p.261

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• Incurable wounds are those inflicted by tongue and eye, by mockery and disdain.

  Honore de Balzac

  Eye, Mockery, Disdain

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• You kin tame a bear. You kin tame a wild-cat and you kin tame a panther. ... You kin tame arything, son, excusin' the human tongue.

  Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

  Cat, Son, Talking

  Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (2011). “The Yearling”, p.120, Simon and Schuster

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• Take not into your ear that scum of hell that people call tittle-tattle. Whosoever willingly listens to a slander is equally guilty with the one who tells it, and an old writer says they ought both to be hanged; the one by the tongue and the other by the ear. Do not smile upon such a spaniel, lest like a pleased dog, he puts his dirty paw upon you.

  Thomas De Witt Talmage

  Dog, Dirty, People

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• How we love to blame others for our misfortunes! Almost every individual who has lost money in stock speculation has on the tip of his tongue an explanation which he trots out to show that it wasn't his own fault at all.... Hardly one loser has the manliness to say frankly, "I was wrong.

  B. C. Forbes

  Faults, Blame, Loser

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• The dust is old upon my "sandal-shoon,"
  And still I am a pilgrim; I have roved
  From wild America to Bosphor's waters,
  And worshipp'd at innumerable shrines
  Of beauty; and the painter's art, to me,
  And sculpture, speak as with a living tongue,
  And of dead kingdoms, I recall the soul,
  Sitting amid their ruins.

  Nathaniel Parker Willis

  Travel, Art, Dust

  Nathaniel Parker Willis (1850). “Sacred Poems”, p.171

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• Since I cannot govern my own tongue, though within my own teeth, how can I hope to govern the tongue of others?

  Benjamin Franklin

  Teeth, My Own

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac”, p.35, Nayika Publishing

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• Truth always has a bewitching savor of newness in it, and novelty at the first taste recalls that original sweetness to the tongue; but alas for him who would make the one a substitute for the other.

  James Russell Lowell

  Truth, Taste, Firsts

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “My Study Windows”, p.107

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• The bitter clamor of two eager tongues.

  William Shakespeare

  Two, Abuse, Bitter

  William Shakespeare, George Steevens (1866). “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Comprising His Dramatic and Poetical Works”, p.300

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• The intelligence of affection is carried on by the eye only; good-breeding has made the tongue falsify the heart, and act a part of continued restraint, while nature has preserved the eyes to herself, that she may not be disguised or misrepresented.

  Joseph Addison

  Heart, Eye, May

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