A Quote by Bernard Goldberg

The most meaningless term in the English language is "I take full responsibility." When a politician utters those words it means absolutely nothing.

Bernard Goldberg

Quote Topics

Absolutely Absolutely Not Absolutely Nothing English English Language Full Language Meaningless Means Most Nothing Politician Responsibility Take Term Those Words

Quote Author

Bernard Goldberg
American - Writer
Born: May 31, 1945

The most meaningless term in the English language is 'I take full responsibility.' When a politician utters those words it means absolutely nothing.

Bernard Goldberg

There may be no more-radioactive term in the English language than what we now almost always refer to as the 'n-word' - itself a coy means of linguistic sidestepping that is a sign of how perilous it is to utter the thing in full, even in conversations about language.

Jeffrey Kluger

The words 'alone,' 'lonely,' and 'loneliness' are three of the most powerful words in the English language. Those words say that we are human; they are like the words hunger and thirst. But they are not words about the body, they are words about the soul.

Donald Miller

You don’t have the slightest idea of what it means to write a scene and a character in the English language, with images and words chock full of received meaning.

Jonathan Lethem

The English language is full of words that are just waiting to be misspelled, and the world is full of sticklers, ready to pounce.

Mary Norris

I believe we are being dishonest with language minority groups if we tell them they can take full part in American life without learning the English language.

S. I. Hayakawa

The fact that for a long time Cubism has not been understood and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in it means nothing. I do not read English, an English book is a blank book to me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist. Why should I blame anyone but myself if I cannot understand what I know nothing about?" -Pablo Picasso.

Pablo Picasso

A word about 'plain English.' The phrase certainly shouldn't connote drab and dreary language. Actually, plain English is typically quite interesting to read. It's robust and direct-the opposite of gaudy, pretentious language. You achieve plain English when you use the simplest, most straightforward way of expressing an idea. You can still choose interesting words. But you'll avoid fancy ones that have everyday replacements meaning precisely the same thing.

Bryan A. Garner

The N-word is one of the most contentious words in the English language.

Judy Woodruff

The most beautiful words in the English language are 'not guilty'.

Maxim Gorky

Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

Henry James

To be functionally fluent in a language, for instance, in most cases you need about 1,200 words. To acquire a total of vocabulary words, if you really train someone well they can acquire 200 to 300 words a day, which means that in a week they can acquire the vocabulary necessary to speak a language.

Tim Ferriss

Few words in any language carry such a load of meaning as 'honor.' It is an old word, unchanged even in its spelling from classical Latin to modern English. Spoken or written, it does not seem to require much explanation; most people think they know what it means.