Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become, in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of words Power of literature Literature Writing

Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Source

Journals of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Occupation

Novelist Writer

From

United States

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Journal entry. 18 May 1848.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne about power of words: “Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in…”
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A quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne about power of words: “Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in…”
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A quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne about power of words: “Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1840s

Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.

Alfred Tennyson

Poems

Buy a book containing Locksley Hall at Amazon Buy a book containing Locksley Hall at Amazon
Read Locksley Hall at Poetry Foundation
More information about this quote
Topic
Openness to change Change

Author

Alfred Tennyson
Source
Locksley Hall Poems
Medium
Poem
Language
English
Time
1842 1840s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Tennyson, Alfred. "Locksley Hall." Poems. Vol. 2, London: Edward Moxon, 1842, I. 182.

Current Citation

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. "Locksley Hall." Alfred Tennyson: The Major Works, edited by Adam Roberts. Oxford University Press, 2009, I. 182.

Another quote about Power of literature

My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel—it is, before all, to make you see. That—and no more, and it is everything.

Joseph Conrad

More information about this quote
Topic
Power of literature

Author

Joseph Conrad
Source
The Nigger of the Narcissus
Language
English
Time
1897 1890s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Conrad, Joseph. The Nigger of the "Narcissus": A Tale of the Forecastle. Heinemann, 1897, preface.

Current Citation

Conrad, Joseph. "The Nigger of the '"Narcissus.'" The Secret Sharer and Other Stories. W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, preface.