--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It is always hazardous to express what…" description: "\"It is always hazardous to express what one has to say indirectly and allusively.\" — Walter Pater" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2df/walter-pater-9808_quote_it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-o_1277152.jpg" --- # It is always hazardous to express what one has to say… ![“It is always hazardous to express what one has to say indirectly and allusively.” quote by Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2df/walter-pater-9808_quote_it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-o_1277152.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2df/walter-pater-9808_quote_it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-o_1277152.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2df/walter-pater-9808_quote_it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-o_1277152.jpg) > “It is always hazardous to express what one has to say indirectly and allusively.” [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Indirect or vague language can mislead and obscure true intent, causing misunderstanding and risk. **In simple terms:** Being vague is dangerous. Key Takeaway Speak clearly and directly. Themes communication clarity risk Mood cautious thoughtful Type advice philosophical When to use this quote - personal relationships - professional negotiations - public speaking - writing Key Concepts Rhetoric interpretation intent Questions to Reflect On - How might you balance honesty with tact? - When is indirectness appropriate? A Different Perspective Directness may offend or seem blunt. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Hazardous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hazardous/) [Indirectly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indirectly/) ## Related quotes > [I say things, but I say them indirectly. At the same time, I try to make my images as direct as possible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andres-serrano/i-say-things-but-i-say-them-indirectly-at-the-same-time-i-try-to-make/) [Andres Serrano](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andres-serrano/) > [We feel more than we can express, we see more than we can say.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marty-rubin/we-feel-more-than-we-can-express-we-see-more-than-we-can-say/) [Marty Rubin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marty-rubin/) > [“This writing doesn't affect reality any more than any writing does; that is to say, indirectly, but considerably.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/this-writing-doesn-t-affect-reality-any-more-than-any-writing-does/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [Of course, the plea for respect for nonhuman life goes far beyond the scientific delight of familiarity with our planet mates. The nonhuman forms…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lynn-margulis/of-course-the-plea-for-respect-for-nonhuman-life-goes-far-beyond-the/) [Lynn Margulis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lynn-margulis/) > [The creation of NIT has ensured some seats for admission in undergraduate courses for students of Arunachal Pradesh, which will bound to uplift economics…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-creation-of-nit-has-ensured-some-seats-for-admission-in/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [It took a catastrophe of socialized medicine to wake a lot of people up because it affects every single person in America, either directly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/monica-crowley/it-took-a-catastrophe-of-socialized-medicine-to-wake-a-lot-of-people/) [Monica Crowley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/monica-crowley/) > [We draw inspiration directly and indirectly from all sorts of things, like movies, documentaries, TV dramas, novels, non-fiction books, animation, science and nature shows,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-konietzko/we-draw-inspiration-directly-and-indirectly-from-all-sorts-of-things/) [Bryan Konietzko](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-konietzko/) > [Companies do not commit crimes; only their agents do. And while a company might get the benefit of some such crimes, prosecuting the company…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jed-s-rakoff/companies-do-not-commit-crimes-only-their-agents-do-and-while-a/) [Jed S. Rakoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jed-s-rakoff/) > [Directly or indirectly, everything we write is for someone.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/directly-or-indirectly-everything-we-write-is-for-someone/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I always say the person who taught me how to sing indirectly because I listened to her all the time was Brandy. I fell…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jhene-aiko/i-always-say-the-person-who-taught-me-how-to-sing-indirectly-because/) [Jhene Aiko](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jhene-aiko/) > [The terrorist action of 9/11 gave birth to President Obama's entry to the White House. Not directly, but indirectly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maya-angelou/the-terrorist-action-of-9-11-gave-birth-to-president-obama-s-entry-to/) [Maya Angelou](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maya-angelou/) > [I do get my pizzas paid for by Linux indirectly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/linus-torvalds/i-do-get-my-pizzas-paid-for-by-linux-indirectly/) [Linus Torvalds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/linus-torvalds/) > [Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-luther-king-jr/whatever-affects-one-directly-affects-all-indirectly/) [Martin Luther King, Jr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-luther-king-jr/) > [What about those who help growth indirectly, those who stay at home and look after others - mothers, carers of elderly parents or sick…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noreena-hertz/what-about-those-who-help-growth-indirectly-those-who-stay-at-home/) [Noreena Hertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noreena-hertz/) > [What happens to one directly happens to all indirectly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nina-turner/what-happens-to-one-directly-happens-to-all-indirectly/) [Nina Turner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nina-turner/) ## More by Walter Pater > [A counted number of pulses only is given to us of a variegated, dramatic life. How may we see in them all that is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-counted-number-of-pulses-only-is-given-to-us-of-a-variegated/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curiously-testing-new-opinions/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [One of the most beautiful passages of Rousseau is that in the sixth book of Confessions, where he describes the awakening in him of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/one-of-the-most-beautiful-passages-of-rousseau-is-that-in-the-sixth/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/for-art-comes-to-you-proposing-frankly-to-give-nothing-but-the/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Every moment some form grows perfect in hand or face; some tone on the hills or the sea is choicer than the rest; some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/every-moment-some-form-grows-perfect-in-hand-or-face-some-tone-on-the/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, and in the very brilliancy of their gifts some tragic dividing of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/not-to-discriminate-every-moment-some-passionate-attitude-in-those/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [A certain strangeness, something of the blossoming of the aloe, is indeed an element in all true works of art: that they shall excite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-certain-strangeness-something-of-the-blossoming-of-the-aloe-is/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“The younger, certainly, had to the full that charm of a constitutional freshness of aspect which may defy for a long time extravagant or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-younger-certainly-had-to-the-full-that-charm-of-a-constitutional/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Books are a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from the vulgarities of the actual world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/books-are-a-refuge-a-sort-of-cloistral-refuge-from-the-vulgarities-of/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [The base of all artistic genius is the power of conceiving humanity in a new, striking, rejoicing way, of putting a happy world ofits…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-base-of-all-artistic-genius-is-the-power-of-conceiving-humanity/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“art is self-sufficient and need serve no moral or political purpose”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/art-is-self-sufficient-and-need-serve-no-moral-or-political-purpose/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [In a sense it might even be said that our failure is to form habits: for, after all, habit is relative to a stereotyped…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/in-a-sense-it-might-even-be-said-that-our-failure-is-to-form-habits/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“The essence of humanism is that belief of which he seems never to have doubted, that nothing which has ever interested living men and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-essence-of-humanism-is-that-belief-of-which-he-seems-never-to/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [A very intimate sense of the expressiveness of outward things, which ponders, listens, penetrates, where the earlier, less developed consciousness passed lightly by, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-very-intimate-sense-of-the-expressiveness-of-outward-things-which/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [That sense of a life in natural objects, which in most poetry is but a rhetorical artifice, was, then, in Wordsworth the assertion of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/that-sense-of-a-life-in-natural-objects-which-in-most-poetry-is-but-a/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) [Explore all 69 Walter Pater quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) ## More Hazardous quotes > [Now everything is wonderful and hazardous and nothing's hypothetical.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-moore/now-everything-is-wonderful-and-hazardous-and-nothing-s-hypothetical/) [Alan Moore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-moore/) > [“The first decade of driving is the most hazardous.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/the-first-decade-of-driving-is-the-most-hazardous/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [In the sequence where I am burned at the stake, everything was so casual and hazardous that the bottom of my dress caught fire,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barbara-steele/in-the-sequence-where-i-am-burned-at-the-stake-everything-was-so/) [Barbara Steele](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barbara-steele/) > [Liberal democracy has endured because its institutions are designed for handling morally hazardous forms of coercive power. It puts the question of how far…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-ignatieff/liberal-democracy-has-endured-because-its-institutions-are-designed/) [Michael Ignatieff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-ignatieff/) > [(Talon pulled another beignet from the sack and held it up for her to eat.) That stuff is hazardous to your health. (Sunshine) Baby,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sherrilyn-kenyon/talon-pulled-another-beignet-from-the-sack-and-held-it-up-for-her-to/) [Sherrilyn Kenyon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sherrilyn-kenyon/) > [It is one of the maxims of the civil law, that definitions are hazardous.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-johnson/it-is-one-of-the-maxims-of-the-civil-law-that-definitions-are/) [Samuel Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-johnson/) > [“Had I been educated by my employers as to how hazardous mercury filled spectral lamps were, I would never have taken an obsolete mercury…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/had-i-been-educated-by-my-employers-as-to-how-hazardous-mercury/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [If we found a hazardous asteroid, we could nudge it out of the way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carrie-nugent/if-we-found-a-hazardous-asteroid-we-could-nudge-it-out-of-the-way/) [Carrie Nugent](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carrie-nugent/) > [“From a distance, the dangerous Desoto Solar Farm looked okay.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/from-a-distance-the-dangerous-desoto-solar-farm-looked-okay/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [“How hazardous are high powered industrial sodium LASER exposures to night shift summit staff working at very high altitudes across their full lifespan?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/how-hazardous-are-high-powered-industrial-sodium-laser-exposures-to/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [“You want to shut me up with your illegal none disclosure agreement?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/you-want-to-shut-me-up-with-your-illegal-none-disclosure-agreement/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [“There is a lot of hazardous information emerging about the earthing health technique and I do not do it, other than walking barefoot in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/there-is-a-lot-of-hazardous-information-emerging-about-the-earthing/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [If u trying to ignore me ...then I am fine with it but this gonna be hazardous for u in future...!!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hemant-vaswani/if-u-trying-to-ignore-me-then-i-am-fine-with-it-but-this-gonna-be/) [Hemant Vaswani](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hemant-vaswani/) > [Is there discrimination against women? Yes, like the old boys' network. And sometimes discrimination against women becomes discrimination against men: in hazardous fields, women…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/warren-farrell/is-there-discrimination-against-women-yes-like-the-old-boys-network/) [Warren Farrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/warren-farrell/) > [“The most dangerous thing a company can do is lose control of an employee that has witnessed hazardous and illegal workplace activities.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/the-most-dangerous-thing-a-company-can-do-is-lose-control-of-an/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) [Browse all 39 Hazardous quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hazardous/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "It is always hazardous to express what one has to say indirectly and allusively.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Walter Pater" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-one-has-to-say-indirectly-and/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Hazardous" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-one-has-to-say-indirectly-and/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2df/walter-pater-9808_quote_it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-o_1277152.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2df/walter-pater-9808_quote_it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-o_1277152.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2df/walter-pater-9808_quote_it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-o_1277152.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It is always hazardous to express what one has to say indirectly and allusively.” — Walter Pater", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Walter Pater", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "It is always hazardous to express...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-one-has-to-say-indirectly-and/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/it-is-always-hazardous-to-express-what-one-has-to-say-indirectly-and/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```