It is with a word as with an arrow -- once let it loose and it does not return.

A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words... the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt.

The 500 most commonly used words have an average of 28 meanings each.

You can stroke people with words.

We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.

I am a dreamer of words, of written words. I think I am reading; a word stops me. I leave the page. The syllables of the word begin to move around. Stressed accents begin to invert. The word abandons its meaning like an overload which is too heavy and prevents dreaming. Then words take on other meanings as if they had the right to be young. And the words wander away, looking in the nooks and crannies of vocabulary for new company, bad company.

A word too much always defeats its purpose.

A word from the mouth is like a stone from a sling.

A word once uttered can never be recalled.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.