Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Words
1.Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.
2.I know it well, sir: you have an exchequer of words.
Shakespeare.—Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. Scene 4. (Thurio to Valentine.)
With some laughing ladies, I presume, whose incessant concussion of words would not let you put in a syllable.
Colley Cibber.—The Lady’s Last Stake, Act I. Scene 1.
Words, words, words!
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2. (Hamlet to Polonius.) Garrick.—The Guardian, Act I.
Words are grown so false I am loath to prove reason with them.
Shakespeare.—Twelfth Night, Act III. Scene 1. (Clown to Viola.)
Her words but wind, and all her tears but water.
Spenser.—Fairy Queen, Book VI. Canto VI. Verse 42.
Soft words, with nothing in them, make a song.
Waller.—To Mr. Creech, Line 10.
Words are like leaves, and, where they most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.
Pope.—On Criticism, Line 309.
Men ever had, and ever will have, leave
To coin new words well suited to the age.
Words are like leaves, some wither every year,
And every year a younger race succeeds.
Roscommon.—Horace, Art of Poetry.
Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
Pope.—On Criticism, Line 335.
Use may revive the obsoletest words,
And banish those that now are most in vogue;
Use is the judge, the law, and rule of speech.
Roscommon.—Art of Poetry.
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act III. Scene 3. (Hamlet’s Uncle, after rising from his knees.)
Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
Shakespeare.—King Henry V., Act IV. Scene 3. (The King to Westmoreland.)
When I would pray and think, I think and pray,
To several subjects: heaven hath my empty words.
Shakespeare.—Measure for Measure, Act II. Scene 4. (Angelo.)
He call’d on Alla—but the word
Arose unheeded or unheard.
Byron.—The Giaour.
1.Not a word?
2.Not one to throw at a dog.
Shakespeare.—As You Like It, Act I. Scene 3. (Celia and Rosalind.)
And words came first, and after, blows.
Lloyd.—Spirit of Contradiction.
Words beget anger; anger brings forth blows;
Blows make of dearest friends immortal foes.
Herrick.—Hesperides, Moral Essays, 485.
What you keep by you, you may change and mend;
But words once spoke can never be recall’d.
Roscommon.—Art of Poetry.