Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work. — Carl Sandburg
By using stale metaphors, similes and idioms, you save much mental effort, at the cost of leaving your meaning vague, not only for your reader but for yourself. — George Orwell
Besides, it happens (how, I cannot tell) that an idea launched like a javelin in proverbial form strikes with sharper point on the hearer's mind and leaves implanted barbs for meditation. — Desiderius Erasmus
A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. — Miguel de Cervantes
A short saying often contains much wisdom. — Sophocles
Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten. — Chinua Achebe
Witticism. A sharp and clever remark, usually quoted and seldom noted; what the Philistine is pleased to call a joke. — Ambrose Bierce
Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination. — Ludwig Wittgenstein
We are trapped by language to such a degree that every attempt to formulate insight is a play on words. — Niels Bohr
APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom. The flabby wine-skin of his brain Yields to some pathologic strain, And voids from its unstored abysm The driblet of an aphorism. "The Mad Philosopher," 1697 — Ambrose Bierce
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
The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances. — Aristotle
The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs,
which are brief and pithy. — William Penn
Short Idiom Quotes
You can't judge a book by its cover, can you? — Cao Cao
Do not put all your eggs in one basket. — Warren Buffett
Don't put all your eggs in one basket. — Miguel de Cervantes
All that glitters is not gold. — William Shakespeare
Don't count your chickens before they egg. — Ross O'Donovan
You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. — Charlaine Harris
Each person is an idiom unto himself, an apparent violation of the syntax of the species. — Gordon Allport
A lovely evening of new idioms and fresh mozzarella. — Elizabeth Gilbert
As advertising blather becomes the nation's normal idiom, language becomes printed noise. — George Will
Idiom Image Quotes
Proverb Quotes
Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back. — Harvey Mackay
There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. — Chinua Achebe
If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys. — Chief Dan George
We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n'ani ji onwe ya: 'He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.' — Chinua Achebe
If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help someone else. — Confucius
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. — Dogen
A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion. — Grantland Rice
A KEY TO BEGIN FORGIVING: Become soft and tender with the person. The first step is to become soft in your mind and spirit. Lower your voice and relax your facial expressions. This reflects honor and humility; and as Proverbs 15:1 suggests, "A gentle answer turns away anger." — Gary Smalley
The Proverbs 31 woman is not the model of a perfect woman. She is the model of a committed woman under God. — Tony Evans
If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it? — Dogen
Old Proverb Quotes
Melody is the essence of music. I compare a good melodist to a fine racer, and counterpointists to hack post-horses; therefore be advised, let well alone and remember the old Italian proverb: Chi sa più, meno sa Who knows most, knows least. — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth (In Vino Veritas). — Pliny The Elder
Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people seek it. — David Gemmell
The most difficult battles in life are those we fight within. - Old Chinese Proverb — Cam'ron
The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. — Wilfred Owen
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. — John Ray
You can lead a bureaucrat to water, but you can't make him think. — Ric Keller
Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 — Bible
If there is any truth to the old proverb that "one who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client," the Court now bestows a constitutional right on one to make a fool of himself. — Harry A. Blackmun
I believe that there is a silver lining in everything, and once you begin to see it, you'll need sunglasses to combat the glare. — Sophia Amoruso
Music is a manifestation of the human spirit, similar to language. Its greatest practitioners have conveyed to mankind things not possible to say in any other language. If we do not want these things to remain dead treasures, we must do our utmost to make the greatest possible number of people understand their idiom. — Zoltan Kodaly
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink. — George Orwell
My chief virtue (or if you like, defect) has been a tireless lifelong search for an original, individual musical idiom. I detest imitation, I detest hackneyed devices. — Sergei Prokofiev
Back in those early days when I began my apprenticeship as a poet, I also tried to voice our anger, spirit of defiance and resistance in a Jamaican poetic idiom. — Linton Kwesi Johnson
If you do not know where your competitor is, or overconfident and snobbish about your competitor, or are unable to comprehend how yourcompetitor became a real threat, you will surely fall behind him. Don't be the "they" in this idiom: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. — Jack Ma
Unfortunately or fortunately, in order to become acquainted with the idiom of country or rock music, it is necessary to occasionally play in a bar. Bars are a rehearsal place. — Garth Hudson
God has to speak to each person in their own language, in their own idioms. Take Spanish, Chinese. You can express the same thought, but to different people you have to use a different language. Its the same in religion. — Huston Smith
A myth is, of course, not a fairy story. It is the presentation of facts belonging to one category in the idioms appropriate to another. To explode a myth is accordingly not to deny the facts but to re-allocate them. — Gilbert Ryle
The mechanical philosophy was ever blind to this fact. Intelligent design, on the other hand, readily embraces the sacramental nature of physical reality. Indeed, intelligent design is just the Logos theology of John's Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory. — William A. Dembski
Intelligent design is just the Logos theology of John's Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory. — William A. Dembski
Personally I feel that real rock 'n' roll may be on the way out, just like adolescence as a relatively innocent transitional period is on the way out. What we have instead is a small island of new free music surrounded by some good reworkings of past idioms and a vast sargasso sea of absolute garbage. — Lester Bangs
A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? — George Orwell
[T]here is a methodological bias in favor of taking natural discourse literally, other things being equal. For example, unless there are clear reasons for construing discourse as ambiguous, elliptical, or involving special idioms, we should not so construe it. — Tyler Burge
Whatever coast he's on, a man should be himself. I don't write in any particular idiom, I write Charles Mingus. — Charles Mingus
Pheromones are Earth's primordial idiom. — Karen Joy Fowler
You cannot judge a book by its contents. — Jon Stewart
Beaumont specifically pointed out that the cultural elements and idioms regarded as "Egyptian" could not have originated in the land of the Nile. This single fact is inviolate and cannot be denied. It is obvious to those who have taken the time to study the subject, that the Egyptian civilization was transplanted by Western adepts and elders. — Michael Tsarion
The disquieting thing about newscaster-babble or editorial-speak is its ready availability as a serf idiom, a vernacular of deference. "Mr. Secretary, are we any nearer to bringing about a dialogue in this process ? — Christopher Hitchens
The swordswoman and I are not so dissimilar. May my people understand the resemblance soon so that I can return to them. What we have in common are the words at our backs. The idioms for revenge are 'report a crime' and 'report to five families.' The reporting is the vengeance-not the beheading, not the gutting, but the words. — Maxine Hong Kingston
It's a shame that jazz is now being turned into dried fruit. It's becoming quantized, diced and defined. It's becoming an idiom. To me if it's anything, jazz is a verb ? it's more like a process than it is a thing. — Pat Metheny
I try to use the Australian idiom to its maximum advantage. — Paul Keating
Air power speaks a strategic language so new that translation into the hackneyed idiom of the past is impossible. — Alexander P. de Seversky
Every good writer has much idiom; it is the life and spirit of language. — Walter Savage Landor
The American idiom has much to offer us that the English language has never heard of — William Carlos Williams
Yes, but I view Frank's music as fully composed. In other words, the arrangements can work for any idiom such as a rock band or an orchestra. Frank was a brilliant arranger and could make his music work in any context. He proved that tour after tour and album after album. — Dweezil Zappa
Psychobabble is... a set of repetitive verbal formalities that kills off the very spontaneity, candor, and understanding it pretends to promote. It's an idiom that reduces psychological insight to a collection of standardized observations, that provides a frozen lexicon to deal with an infinite variety of problems. — Richard D. Rosen
The development of new instrumental and vocal idioms has been one of the remarkable phenomena of recent music. — George Crumb
I do not believe in pure idioms. I think there is naturally a desire, for whoever speaks or writes, to sign in an idiomatic, irreplaceable manner. — Jacques Derrida
Wizards was my homage to Tolkien in the American idiom. I had read Tolkien, understood Tolkien, and wanted to do a sort of fantasy for American kids, and that was Wizards. — Ralph Bakshi
It will be a sad day for the world when the Oriental gent realizes that Western bumbling is only Eastern guile in a different idiom. Well, a lot of it, anyway. — Kyril Bonfiglioli
Nine times out of 10 when people do a tribute album or tribute songs for somebody, it's what I call 'white boys playing reggae'. They know they can't, we know they can't, so they sing like they can't and play like they can't. They gently make fun of the idiom or sing in a false accent. — David Lee Roth
Psychobabble is... a set of repetitive verbal formalities that kills off the very spontaneity, candor, and understanding it pretends to promote. It's an idiom that reduces psychological insight to a collection of standardized observations, that provides a frozen lexicon to deal with an infinite variety of problems. — Richard Rosen
Idiom is larger than geography it is the hot breath of a people singing, slashing, explorative. Imagery becomes the magic denominator, the language of a passage, saying the ancient unchanging particulars. — Mari Evans
In Conclusion
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