Command Quote by Barbara Walters

A great many people think that polysyllables are a sign of intelligence.

— Barbara Walters

Our language, once homely and colloquial, seeks to aggrandize our meanest activities with polysyllabic terms or it retreats from frankness into a stammering verbosity.

— Mary McCarthy

The mind of the polyglot is a very particular thing, and scientists are only beginning to look closely at how acquiring a second language…

— Jeffrey Kluger

If words are doing their job, then their novelty will not be the most noticeable thing about them.

— Erin McKean

Just as there are polysyllabic words that say very little, so there are also monosyllabic words of infinite meaning.

— Anonymous

A charlatan makes obscure what is clear; a thinker makes clear what is obscure.

— Hugh Kingsmill

Words are small straitjackets when put around creative flourishes and maneuverings.

— Robert Genn

When people want to sound smart, they add syllables to words, words to sentences, sentences to paragraphs, paragraphs to books. They try to make…

— Robert McKee

Words have their own hierarchy, their own protocol, their own artistic titles, their own plebeian stigmas.

— Jose Saramago

Words have a life of their own. There is no telling what they will do. Within a matter of days, they can even turn…

— Craig Brown

Words, like glasses, obscure everything they do not make clear. Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

— Joseph Joubert

Writing distills, crystallizes, and clarifies thought.

— Stephen Covey