Tongue Quotes - Page 38

• I have sworn with my tongue, but my mind is unsworn.
  [Lat., Juravi lingua, mentem injuratem gero.]

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Mind

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• This letter gives me a tongue; and were I not allowed to write, I should be dumb.
  [Lat., Praebet mihi littera linguam:
  Et, si non liceat scribere, mutus ero.]

  Ovid

  Writing, Giving, Dumb

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• The raven once in snowy plumes was drest,
  White as the whitest dove's unsullied breast,
  Fair as the guardian of the Capitol,
  Soft as the swan; a large and lovely fowl
  His tongue, his prating tongue had changed him quite
  To sooty blackness from the purest white.

  Ovid

  Ravens, White, Swans

  Ovid (1833). “Ovid”, p.56

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• People who dream when they sleep at night know of a special kind of happiness which the world of the day holds not, a placid ecstasy, and ease of heart, that are like honey on the tongue.

  Isak Dinesen

  Dream, Sleep, Heart

  Isak Dinesen (1938). “Out of Africa”

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• Sure there is none but fears a future state;
  And when the most obdurate swear they do not,
  Their trembling hearts belie their boasting tongues.

  John Dryden

  Heart, Eternity, Trembling

  John Dryden (1808). “The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes”, p.437

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• The tongue is the worst part of a bad servant.

  Juvenal

  Worst, Servant

  Juvenal, Persius (1848). “The Satires of Juvenal and Persius Literally Translated from the Most Approved Texts by W. Wallace”, p.54

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• An Oxe is taken by the horns, and a Man by the tongue.

  George Herbert

  Taken, Men, Horns

  George Herbert (1874). “The Complete Works of George Herbert: Prose”, p.362

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• Faire language grates not the tongue.

  George Herbert

  Language, Grate

  George Herbert, William Jerdan (1853). “The Works of the Rev. George Hebert”, p.387

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• Foolish tongues talke by the dozen.

  George Herbert

  Dozen, Foolish

  George Herbert (1862). “The Works of George Herbert: In Prose and Verse”

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• There is no restraining men's tongues or pens when charged with a little vanity.

  George Washington

  Men, Vanity, Littles

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.324

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• Fashion, leader of a chatt'ring train,
  Whom man for his own hurt permits to reign
  Who shifts and changes all things but his shape,
  And would degrade her vot'ry to an ape,
  The fruitful parent of abuse and wrong,
  Holds a usurp'd dominion o'er his tongue,
  There sits and prompts him with his own disgrace,
  Prescribes the theme, the tone, and the grimace,
  And when accomplish'd in her wayward school,
  Calls gentleman whom she has made a fool.

  William Cowper

  Fashion, Hurt, School

  William Cowper (1837). “Poems; to which is prefixed a memoir of the author by J. M'Diarmid”, p.217

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• Sacred interpreter of human thought,
  How few respect or use thee as they ought!
  But all shall give account of every wrong,
  Who dare dishonor or defile the tongue;
  Who prostitute it in the cause of vice,
  Or sell their glory at a market-price!

  William Cowper

  Giving, Vices, Use

  William Cowper, James Thomson (1832). “The Works of Cowper and Thompson: Including Many Letters and Poems Never Before Published in this Country. With a New and Interesting Memoir of the Life of Thomson”, p.40

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• Be thankful that your lot has fallen on times when, though there may be many evil tongues and exasperated spirits, there are none who have fire and fagot at command.

  Robert Southey

  Fire, Evil, Being Thankful

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• True gladness doth not always speak; joy, bred and born but in the tongue, is weak.

  Ben Jonson

  Joy, Speak, Weak

  Ben Jonson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ben Jonson (Illustrated)”, p.2707, Delphi Classics

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• O innocence, how glorious and happy a portion art thou to the breast that possesses thee! thou fearest neither the eyes nor the tongues of men. Truth, the most powerful of all things, is thy strongest friend; and the brighter the light is in which thou art displayed, the more it discovers thy transcendent beauties.

  Henry Fielding

  Art, Powerful, Eye

  Henry Fielding (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Fielding (Illustrated)”, p.1596, Delphi Classics

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• But the unfaithful priest, what tongue
  Enough, shall execrate?

  Robert Pollok

  Unfaithful, Enough, Ministers

  Robert Pollok (1857). “The Course of Time: A Poem”, p.55

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• When the tongue or the pen is let loose in a frenzy of passion, it is the man, and not the subject, that becomes exhausted.

  Thomas Paine

  Passion, Men, Exhausted

  Thomas Paine (1856). “Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution”, p.5

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• The wisdom of the Bible writers is more than human; the prophecies proclaim a Supreme Ruler who, though inhabiting all space, deigns to speak through the hearts and minds and tongues of His children.

  William Jennings Bryan

  Children, Heart, Space

  William Jennings Bryan (1922). “In His Image: By William Jennings Bryan”

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• If thy words be too luxuriant, confine them, lest they confine thee; he that thinks he never can speak enough may easily speak too much. A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted.

  Francis Quarles

  Thinking, Talking, Brain

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.71

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• Laws are commanded to hold their tongues among arms; and tribunals fall to the ground with the peace they are no longer able to uphold.

  Edmund Burke

  War, Fall, Law

  Edmund Burke (2014). “Revolutionary Writings: Reflections on the Revolution in France and the First Letter on a Regicide Peace”, p.31, Cambridge University Press

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• The tongue of man is a twisty thing, there are plenty of words there of every kind.

  Homer

  Men, Kind, Plenty

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• The tongue of slander is too prompt with wanton malice to wound the stranger.

  Aeschylus

  Stranger, Slander, Malice

  Aeschylus (1821). “The tragedies of Aeschylus”, p.88

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• Heaven hath many tongues to talk of it, more eyes to behold it, but few hearts that rightly affect it.

  Joseph Hall

  Heart, Eye, Heaven

  Joseph Hall (1837). “The Works of Joseph Hall: Devotional works; Miscellaneous theology”, p.151

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• One can find in the Yiddish tongue and in the Yiddish spirit expressions of pious joy, lust for life, longing for the Messiah, patience and deep appreciation of human individuality.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Appreciation, Expression, Joy

  Isaac Bashevis Singer's Nobel Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 8, 1978.

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• If any man think it a small matter, or of mean concernment, to bridle his tongue, he is much mistaken; for it is a point to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.

  Plutarch

  Mean, Men, Thinking

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