John Dewey Quotes

Learn to express, not impress.

Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.

It's technically extremely difficult to get down what you really mean, not what you think you mean, or what you think sounds good, but what's really there, what you really have to express, in words that somehow convey that meaning in an approximate way.

Silence is better than unmeaning words.

It's funny because I've made a living off of words, but words get in the way of what you really want to say.

If you can't communicate and talk to other people and get across your ideas, you're giving up your potential.

As soon as you start to think of that thing that you want to convey or say, you can always just say it much better than you can actually rhyme it or stuff it into a song. It's very, very difficult to just kind of get your point across without going the back way. And you have to be good at that, to not think about things so hard. Let the pen take over, so that it's somebody else's job to dissect the lyrics and tell you what you're all about.

I believe verbal felicity is the fruit of ardor, of diligence, and of refusing to be false.

There's a power in words. There's a power in being able to explain and describe and articulate what you know and feel and believe about the world, and about yourself.

It is not enough that a man has clearness of vision, and reliance on sincerity, he must also have the art of expression, or he will remain obscure.

I'm so language-based and I'm so about communicating, and my art has always been very audience-based, and very about being functional and communicating something, and about feeling like I have to be heard.

One can usually put one's thoughts better in one's own words.

I've always thought that comedy was just another dramatic expression. I try to measure the amount of truth in a work rather than just looking at the generic distinction between comedy and drama. There's a lot of bullshit drama that leaves you totally cold. And there's a lot of wasted comedy time too. But when you get something honest, it doesn't matter what label you give it.

it makes a great difference to a speaker whether he has something to say, or has to say something.

Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that's the whole art and joy of words.

A man who writes well writes not as others write, but as he himself writes; it is often in speaking badly that he speaks well.

To be understood is to prostitute oneself

The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out.

There is a difference between being listened to and being heard.

Anyone can express himself or herself, but what writers and poets want to do in their work, more than simply express themselves, is communicate.

We have our own thoughts, and if we want others to know them, we must tell them.

Speech is our second possession, after the soul-and perhaps we have no other possession in this world.

I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference. It was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things.

No mortal has a right to wag his tongue, much less to wag his pen, without saying something.

I'm clearer now in what I want to say, and I know better how to say just that.