Words on Words jacketThe Words on Words Challenge

Ever since writers first put pen to paper (or maybe even stylus to clay tablet), they have reflected on the meanings of language and writing. Yet surprisingly, their many literary musings on this topic have never before been gathered together in one volume. How often have you found yourself wondering, "now who was it who said that words were winged?" or something similar, only to give up in frustration after endless hours of vain searching for the quote and its author?

To address that very vexation, David and Hilary Crystal compiled Words on Words: Quotations About Language and Languages. Words on Words contains more than 5,000 quotations about speaking, reading, writing, translation, verbosity, usage, slang, and more, conveniently indexed not just by author and source, but also by key words.

We offer this hopefully not too vexing challenge in the spirit of Words on Words: match the following 22 quotes with the person who wrote them. Bonne chance! Or should that be, bon mot?

 
Authors Quotes

A) Henry Ward Beecher

B) Robert Benchley

C) Robert Burns

D) Samuel Butler

E) Confucius

F) Benjamin Franklin

G) Martin Heidegger

H) George Meredith

I) A. A. Milne

J) Molière

K) Napoleon I

L) Friedrich Nietzsche

M) William Safire

N) St. Augustine

O) Carl Sandburg

P) William Shenstone

Q) Sophocles

R) Gertrude Stein

S) Leon Trotsky

T) Mark Twain

U) Voltaire

V) Walt Whitman

1) "When people cease to complain, they cease to think."

For the answer, highlight here: K) Napoleon I

2) "When one man speaks to another man who doesn't understand him, and when the man who's speaking no longer understands, it's metaphysics."

For the answer, highlight here: U) Voltaire

3) "Once you have the cap and gown all you need do is open your mouth. Whatever nonsense you talk becomes wisdom and all the rubbish, good sense."

For the answer, highlight here: J) Molière

4) "The human tongue is a furnace in which the temper of our souls is daily tried."

For the answer, highlight here: N) St. Augustine

5) "Beware a tongue that's smoothly hung."

For the answer, highlight here: C) Robert Burns

6) "Speech is the small change of silence."

For the answer, highlight here: H) George Meredith

7) "Silence is not always tact and it is tact that is golden, not silence."

For the answer, highlight here: D) Samuel Butler

8) "An ad lib has its place, but not ad nauseum."

For the answer, highlight here: M) William Safire

9) "All words are pegs to hang ideas on."

For the answer, highlight here: A) Henry Ward Beecher

10) "Language is the house of Being."

For the answer, highlight here: G) Martin Heidegger

11) "He who does not understand words, cannot understand people."

For the answer, highlight here: E) Confucius

12) "All words are spiritual. Nothing is more spiritual than words."

For the answer, highlight here: V) Walt Whitman

13) "Those things for which we find words, are things we have already overcome."

For the answer, highlight here: L) Friedrich Nietzsche

14) "I cannot love a friend whose love is words."

For the answer, highlight here: Q) Sophocles

15) "The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart."

For the answer, highlight here: F) Benjamin Franklin

16) "A fool and his words are soon parted."

For the answer, highlight here: P) William Shenstone

17) "Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work."

For the answer, highlight here: O) Carl Sandburg

18) "When angry, count four; when very angry, swear."

For the answer, highlight here: T) Mark Twain

19) "Remarks are not literature."

For the answer, highlight here: R) Gertrude Stein

20) "I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me."

For the answer, highlight here: I) A. A. Milne

21) "Revolutions are always verbose."

For the answer, highlight here: S) Leon Trotsky

22) "The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him."

For the answer, highlight here: B) Robert Benchley