Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.
What is uttered is finished and done with.
My tongue swore, but my mind was still unpledged.
Members will hear me say repeatedly words are important; deeds are a reality.
I have sworn with my tongue, but my mind is unsworn. [Lat., Juravi lingua, mentem injuratem gero.]
Really showing love requires more than just words.
Actions speak louder than words. There is a big difference between what people say and what they do. People might tell you they are excited about your new product, but when they are in a buying situation their behaviour might be totally different.
We'd said we'd keep in touch. But touch is not something you can keep; as soon as it's gone, it's gone. We should have said we'd keep in words, because they are all we can string between us--words on a telephone line, words appearing on a screen.
Apply this simple rule to your conversations: If you wouldn't write it down and sign it, don't say it.
Some words have to be explicitly uttered, Lenore. Only by actually uttering certain words does one really DO what one SAYS. 'Love' is one of those words, performative words. Some words can literally make things real.
If you say, I love you, then you have already fallen in love with language, which is already a form of break up and infidelity.
Try to never say 'yes' on the phone; instead, say, 'I'll get back to you.' When you're actually speaking to someone, the desire to be accommodating is very strong, and can lead you to say 'yes' without enough consideration.
If you wouldn't write it and sign it, don't say it.
As long as words are in your mouth, you are their lord; once you utter them, you are their slave.
If you say something you have to take responsibility for it.
You may hear the most beautiful things, you may hear promises, you may hear everything you want to hear but if the person you're dating is not following up with their actions then they're just words.
People say what they want in interviews, but when they get a contract, they say other things.
The word of man is the most durable of all material.
I'm not a person who puts things out in writing and policy prescriptions and is not intending to follow through.
The spoken word converts individual knowledge into mutual knowledge, and there is no way back once you've gone over that cliff. Saying nothing was more amendable, and over time I'd come to see that it was usually your best course of action.
Words and works eat not at one table.
