3,604 Quotes About Names

We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.

A name can't begin to encompass the sum of all her parts. But that's the magic of names, isn't it? That the complex, contradictory individuals we are can be called up complete and whole in another mind through the simple sorcery of a name.

I sound contemptuous, but I am not. I am interested--intrigued even--by the way time erases real lives, leaving only vague imprints. Blood and spirit fade away so that only names and dates remain.

To call others evil is simpler and more emotionally satisfying than dealing with them as equal human beings that just disagree. That is why some do it so often.

Some people, like teachers and librarians and other adults, like to say that names are not important. Like sticks and stones. But they are wrong.Every word you choose means something you think it means, and more.

I have never understood why an intoxicated man feels the climax of insult is to hurl at you your name. Perhaps because he knows it is the one charge you cannot deny. But invariably before you escape, as though assured the words will cover your retreat with shame, he throws at you your full title.

Perhaps we could all just not use groups to identify ourselves and instead we use specialized titles of individual significance, I wish we had something like that, oh what about names?

Names are powerful and so is destiny, but a person's will is more powerful than both put together.

Everybody calls me "Marty." I never know what to call myself.