Nifty Words

Words sound cool alone and even better when grouped together. Here are some nifty quotations, passages, poetry, definitions, and the like for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

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Walk fearlessly into the house of mourning, for grief is only love that has come up against its oldest challenge, and after all these mortal years, love knows how to handle it.

Kate Braestrup

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Yakko Warner sings all the words in the English Language

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Check out more from Word Warriors

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Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here. Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go. Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you.

Pueblo Blessing

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What do non-English-speaking people say when it's raining cats and dogs?

Argentina: "It's raining dung head-first." In Spanish: Esta lloviendo caen soretes de punta.

Denmark: "It's raining cobbler boys," or "raining shoemakers' apprentices." In Danish: Det regner skomagerdrenge.

France: "It's raining like a pissing cow." In French: Il pleut comme vache qui pisse.

Faroe Islands: "It's raining pilot whales." In Faroese: Tað regnar av grind.

Finland: The direct translation is "It's raining as from Esteri's ass," but a better interpretation is "It's raining like Esther sucks," which can be used for both rain and snow. In Finnish: Sataa kuin Esterin perseestä.

Germany: "It's raining puppies." In German: Es regnet junge Hunde.

Ireland: "It's throwing cobblers' knives." In Irish: Tá sé ag caitheamh sceana gréasaí.

The Netherlands: "It's raining old women," and "It's raining pipestems." In Dutch: Het regent oude wijven and Het regent pijpestelen.

Norway: "It's raining troll women," or "It's raining witches." In Norwegian: Det regner trollkjerringer.

Portugal, Brazil, and other Portuguese-speaking countries: "It's raining pocketknives," and "It's raining frogs' beards." In Portuguese: Está chovendo canivetes or Está chovendo barba de sapo.

Slovakia, Czech Republic: "Tractors are falling." In Slovak: Padajú traktory.

South Africa and Namibia: "It's raining old women with clubs." In Afrikaans: Ou vrouens met knopkieries reen.

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flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo (if I cannot deflect the will of Heaven, I shall move Hell)

Virgil's Aeneid, book VII.312

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"These are things made for thinking on slowly," he would have told the children if he had known how. "Things to be thought on at length, while the hands do their work and the coffee sits in a solid china mug nearby. They are questions of the Reach, maybe: do the dead sing? And do they love the living?"

The Reach Stephen King

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Be careful when you cast out your demons that you don’t throw away the best of yourself.

Friedrich Nietzsche, from Thus Spoke Zarathustra (via violentwavesofemotion)

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The King put his head in his hands and looked miserably at the table between his elbows. He was a kind, conscientious, peace-loving fellow who had been afflicted in his youth by a tutor of genius. Between the two of them they had worked out their theory that killing people, and being a tyrant over them, was wrong. To stop this sort of thing, they had invented the idea of the Table—a vague idea like democracy, or sportsmanship, or morals—and now, in the effort to impose a world of peace, he found himself up to the elbows in blood. When he was feeling healthy he did not grieve much, because he knew the dilemma was inevitable—in weak moments he was persecuted by shame and indecision. He was one of the first Nordic men who had invented civilization, or who had desired to do otherwise than Attila the Hun had done, and the battle against chaos sometimes did not seem to be worth fighting. He often thought that it might have been better for all his dead soldiers to be alive—even if they had lived under tyranny and madness—rather than be quite dead.

T. H. White The Once and Future King (1958)

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The Greeks understood the mysterious power of the hidden side of things. They bequeathed to us one of the most beautiful words in our language—the word ‘enthusiasm’—en theos—a god within. The grandeur of human actions is measured by the inspiration from which they spring. Happy is he who bears a god within, and who obeys it.

Louis Pasteur. (via jaded-mandarin)

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If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.

Joseph Addison

[yeahwrite]

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Rabbit under the mountain Is trying to catch the sun With his ears entering the sea -Poem written by political prisoner Andre during his time in solitary confinement

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Normalcy is overrated; most normal people are assholes.

Bill Clinton

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If you can't say anything nice about anyone else, come sit next to me.

Gertrude Stein

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Cowards die many times before their deaths"

Shakespeare Julius Caesar (II, 2)