Stanislaw Jerzy Lec Quotes

I found a great many pieces of punctuation and typography lying around dormant when I came along - and I must say I had a good time using them.

I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow.

Language is not only the vehicle of thought, it is a great and efficient instrument in thinking.

I adore adverbs; they are the only qualifications I really much respect.

Words are the coins making up the currency of sentences, and there are always too many small coins.

I work with language. I love the flowers of afterthought.

'Do you spell it with a 'V' or a 'W'?' inquired the judge. 'That depends upon the taste and fancy of the speller, my Lord'.

Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.

Words," he said, "is oh such a twitch-tickling problem to me all my life.

Whatever one wishes to say, there is one noun only by which to express it, one verb only to give it life, one adjective only which will describe it. One must search until one has discovered them, this noun, this verb, this adjective, and never rest content with approximations, never resort to trickery, however happy, or to vulgarism, in order to dodge the difficulty.

The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this.

It's the periods and the commas that you have to forget about. The words never change, but the intonations change.

Numbersign questionmark you" and "Asterisk exclamation point the world.

I watched as she added a question mark at the end. Arc, line, space, dot.

People like to say, 'What do you mean exactly?' I would answer, 'I mean, but not exactly.'

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

No matter where we live, we have to use words. Once you've been looking into words, their stories, it's easy to fall in love with them.

Language is the ticket to plot and character, after all, because both are built out of language.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.

I think of myself as a writer as much as I think of myself as a linguist and an academic. I really enjoy writing - playing with language and getting just the right metaphor.

I'm quite obsessed with words.

I love the English language. Words have power.

I guess my diction just isn't very good.

My mother introduced to me as a child the world of language: the way in which translation can be a system by which you can understand others.

Language can be used to so many diverse ends. It can be used to clarify and, of course, it can be used to obfuscate, confuse, evade.