Dictionaries Quotes

When people blame words they are actually blaming the society that uses them. Dictionaries just reflect the words that society uses. - John Simpson

We never say so much as when we do not quite know what we want to say. We need few words when we have something to say, but all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice when we have nothing to say and want desperately to say it. - Eric Hoffer

That's what dictionaries do. They catalog words in popular use. - Erin McKean

It's useful, it's basic and it's just my opinion, but I think everyone should have a Webster's Dictionary. I like reading dictionaries just for the words. We have the Third International Edition, which is good, but if you have the Second International, you've got a gold mine. - Karen Schaffer

I'm very sensitive to the English language. I studied the dictionary obsessively when I was a kid and collect old dictionaries. Words, I think, are very powerful and they convey an intention. - Drew Barrymore

If our fellow men could be aware of our opinions about them, love, friendship, and devotion would be forever erased from the dictionaries; and if we had the courage to confront the doubts we timidly conceive about ourselves, none of us would utter an 'I' without shame. - Emile M. Cioran

I know all the teachers were grateful. A lot of kids took theirs home because many often don't have dictionaries at home. - Pat Howard

Greek was very much a live language, and a language still unconscious of grammar, not, like ours, dominated by definitions and trained upon dictionaries. - Gilbert Murray

Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to be quite true. - Samuel L Jackson

Dictionaries are always fun, but not always reassuring. - M. F. K. Fisher