Vocabulary Quotes - Page 2

• Poetry: the best words in the best order.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Writing, Prose Poetry, Order

  Table Talk 12 July 1827 (1835)

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• Few activities are as delightful as learning new vocabulary.

  Tim Gunn

  Learning New, Delightful, Activity

  Tim Gunn, Kate Moloney (2011). “Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style”, p.182, Abrams

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• A language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules. ... Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.

  Wade Davis

  Motivation, Inspiration, Growth

  30 Copy quote

• Life is tons of discipline. Your first discipline is your vocabulary; then your grammar and your punctuation Then, in your exuberance and bounding energy you say you're going to add to that. Then you add rhyme and meter. And your delight is in that power.

  Robert Frost

  Discipline, Delight, Firsts

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• The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.

  Clifton Fadiman

  Inspiration, Adjectives, Speech

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• Loving your language means a command of its vocabulary beyond the level of the everyday.

  John H. McWhorter

  Mean, Loving You, Everyday

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• It's important to read because it's really good for your vocabulary. It's really good for your imagination. I enjoy reading because I find it relaxing.

  Emma Watson

  Reading, Imagination, Important

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• In my vocabulary there are two bad words: art and good taste.

  Helmut Newton

  Art, Two, Taste

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• I'm very anxious not to fall into archaism or 'literary' diction. I want my vocabulary to have a very large range, but the words must be alive.

  James Agee

  Fall, Writing, Diction

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• The Australian language is easier to learn than boat talk. It has a vocabulary of about six words.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Funny, Humor, Australia

  P.J. O'Rourke (2012). “Holidays in Hell”, p.130, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• If I was writing about an academic or a more difficult person, I would use the Latinate vocabulary more, but I do think Anglo-saxon is the language of emotion.

  Lydia Davis

  Writing, Thinking, Use

  "Lydia Davis hints at move to microblogging fiction" by Vanessa Thorpe, www.theguardian.com. May 25, 2013.

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• Free voluntary reading results in better reading comprehension, writing style, vocabulary, spelling, and grammatical development

  Stephen D. Krashen

  Reading, Writing, Style

  Stephen D. Krashen (2004). “The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research”, Libraries Unltd Incorporated

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• Sound is the vocabulary of nature.

  Pierre Schaeffer

  Sound, Corny

  "Interview with the Pioneer of Musique Concrete". Records Quarterly magazine, vol. 2, n° 1, 1987.

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• The vocabulary of one’s self-criticism is so impoverished and clichéd. We are at our most stupid in our self-hatred.

  Adam Phillips

  Stupid, Self, Hatred

  Adam Phillips (2017). “In Writing”, p.223, Penguin UK

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• Your inability to see other possibilities and your lack of vocabulary are your brain's limits, not the universe's.

  Scott Adams

  Brain, Limits, Inability

  Scott Adams (2004). “God's Debris: A Thought Experiment”, p.39, Andrews McMeel Publishing

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• It's like learning a language; you can't speak a language fluently until you find out who you are in that language, and that has as much to do with your body as it does with vocabulary and grammar.

  Fred Frith

  Doe, Body, Language

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• The ambiguities of language, both in terms of vocabulary and syntax, are fascinating: how important connotation is, what is lost and what is gained in the linguistic transition.

  Marilyn Hacker

  Important, Transition, Syntax

  64 Copy quote

• Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.

  Helen Keller

  Best Friend, Friendship, True Friend

  266 Copy quote

• Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.

  Evan Esar

  Art, Communication, Ideas

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• A word out of place or an interesting choice of vocabulary can spawn a whole character.

  Sara Sheridan

  Character, Interesting, Choices

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• A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.

  Jim Morrison

  Best Friend, Friendship, Being Yourself

  "Indulge In Your Friendships — The Best Reinvention Of Them All" by Kathi Sharpe-Ross, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 1, 2013.

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• I think the most overused words in our vocabulary in the South are black and white.

  Artur Davis

  Black And White, Thinking, South

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• We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

  Booker T. Washington

  Communication, Pockets, Rifles

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• Good art provides people with a vocabulary about things they can't articulate.

  Mos Def

  Art, People, Consciousness

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• Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

  Albert Camus

  Love, Friendship, Happy

  595 Copy quote