Rajneesh Quotes

Words have a life of their own. There is no telling what they will do. Within a matter of days, they can even turn turtle and mean the opposite.

There was no "me" in Alchemy. Well, phonetically there was, but that wasn't the point.

All names mean something.

To define a thing is to substitute the definition for the thing itself.

Confusion of sign and object is original sin coeval with the word.

If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con' what is the opposite of 'progress'?

Words are things, but things which mean. We cannot do away with meaning without doing away with signs, that is, with language itself. Moreover, we would have to do away with the universe. All the things man touches are impregnated with meaning.

The way that words fit together is always interesting to me. I love words.

As soon as there is language, generality has entered the scene.

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.

Words are a strange thing. You once saw an animal and decided it's a 'cat.' But cat is a sound. This cat has nothing to do with the animal. But I have decided it's a cat. So a cat it is.

For language to have meaning, there must be intervals of silence somewhere, to divide word from word and utterance from utterance. He who retires into silence does not necessarily hate language. Perhaps it is love and respect for language which imposes silence upon him. For the mercy of God is not heard in words unless it is heard, both before and after the words are spoken, in silence.

There's truths there that spiral out of what appears to be just a word game. That's what I find mystifying about the meanings of things: they kind of unscrew themselves from the practical words.

I don't really believe anything I say. Because the nature of my work concerns the spaces between the words, rather than the words themselves.

A word is no light matter. Words have with truth been called fossil poetry, each, that is, a symbol of a creative thought.

Words can carry any burden we wish. All that's required is agreement and a tradition upon which to build.

Words mean more than we mean to express when we use them: so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer meant.

I love words, I think they're fascinating and incredibly wonderful things and part of the joy of my work is that I not only get to work with music but also with words. Sometimes it's a difficult process but a lot of the time it's really fun.

Individual words, sounds, squiggles on paper with no meanings other than those with which our imagination can clothe them.

For all symbols are fluxional; all language is vehicular and transitive, and is good, as ferries and horses are, for conveyance, not as farms and houses are, for homestead.

The function of poetry is to point out that the sign is not identical to the referent.

Why are a 'wise man' and a 'wiseguy' opposites?

Using words to talk of words is like using a pencil to draw a picture of itself, on itself. Impossible. Confusing. Frustrating ... but there are other ways to understanding.

Colors are beautiful when they are significant.

I think sometimes a narrative can come out of a single word.