Dashiell Hammett Quotes

Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.

Catherine! Get out of my way. I need to have a word with that thing." Since she usually called Bones "filthy animal", I assumed "thing" meant Ian.

You know, I just want to say to her (Sarah Palin), just very quickly...F-- you.

For when all else is done, on­ly words re­main. Words en­dure.

She tore a page from the book and ripped it in half. Then a chapter. Soon, there was nothing but scraps of words littered between her legs and all around her. The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the Führer was nothing. There would be no limping prisoners, no need for consolation or wordly tricks to make us feel better. What good were the words? She said it audibly now, to the orange-lit room. "What good are the words?

I think they have not learned over the years that the more you talk, the more I will want to beat you.

On paper, swearing takes on a different attitude. It can make you sound very angry when you use it a lot.

I never knew words could be so confusing," Milo said to Tock as he bent down to scratch the dog's ear. "Only when you use a lot to say a little," answered Tock. Milo thought this was quite the wisest thing he'd heard all day.

And yet, words are the passkeys to our souls. Without them, we can't really share the enormity of our lives.

One word is worth a thousand pictures. If it's the right word.

Words, words. They're all we have to go on.

The tongue of man is a twisty thing, there are plenty of words there of every kind.

We live and breathe words.

Technology is a vocabulary and a language in which you can say many things.

I never knew what was meant by choice of words. It was one word or none.

Any woman who can’t say a four-letter word sometimes is deceitful.

You really don’t want to take that tone with me. (Varyk) Well, I do have several others we can choose from. Contemptuous. Angry. Snide. Aggravated. How about I just settle on extreme sarcasm and we call it even? (Dev)

Get what you can with words, because words are free, but the words of an armed man ring that much sweeter.

Whatever you want to say, there is only one word to express it, only one verb to give it movement, only one adjective to qualify it.

Words were her plague and words were her redemption.

I gotta use words to talk to you.

The cuss am I? Are you cussing with me?

Yes, time can be buoyed by wordlessness, but it needs to be anchored in words.

A writer once asked what I'd say if I ever met my biggest hater. I paused, thought deeply and said, "Probably 'suk a dog dik, motherfuker.'"