Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.

-Achebe, Chinua originally Albert Chinualumogo
  Things Fall  Apart, ch.1. The title is taken fromYeats's poem 'The Second Coming'.

He still had his glorious sense of words drawn from the special reservoir from which Lincoln also drew, fed by Shakespeare and thoseTudor critics who wrote the first Prayer Book of Edward VI and their Jacobean successors who translated the Bible.

-Acheson, Dean Gooderham
  Of  Winston Churchill. Sketches from Life of Men I Have Known.

No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slipperyand thought is viscous.

-Adams, Henry Brooks
  The Education of Henry  Adams, ch.31,'The Grammar of Science'.

In youth open your mind, And let all learning in; Words the head does not shape Are worthless, out and in. Words wit has not salted,No nearer the heart than the lip, Are nothing more than wind, A puppy's insolent yelp.

-Anonymous
c.1500  'To a Boy'. Translated from the Irish by Michael O'Donovan ('Frank O'Connor').

Curled minion, dancer, coiner of sweet words!

-Arnold, Matthew
  Poems:  A New Edition,'Sohrab and Rustum', l.458.

Vain matter is worse than vain words.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  The Advancement of Learning, bk.1.

In things that are tender and unpleasing, it isgood to break the ice by some whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  Essays, no.22,'Of Cunning'.

One picture is worth ten thousand words.

-Barnard, Frederick R
  In Printer's Ink,10 Mar.

I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Kings10:7.

Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Job 35:16.

Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Job 38:2^4.

The entrance of thy wordsgiveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Psalms119:130.

A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Proverbs15:1.

Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty toutterany thing before God: for God isinheaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Ecclesiastes 5:2.

Behold,Ihave put my wordsinthy mouth. See,Ihavethis day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Jeremiah1:9^10.

For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel; Not many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Ezekiel 3:5^6.

   And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as thestarsforeverand ever.Butthou,ODaniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Daniel12:3^4.

Asthe climbing up a sandy way isto the feet of the aged, so is a wife full of words to a quiet man.

-Bible (Apocrypha)
Ecclesiasticus 25:20.

Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in few words; be as one that knoweth and yet holdeth his tongue.

-Bible (Apocrypha)
Ecclesiasticus 32:8.

And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, whenye departoutofthat house orcity, shake off the dust of your feet.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Matthew10:14.