Connotations Quotes

“He showed the words “chocolate cake” to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. “Guilt” was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: “celebration.”
― Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

“Sensitive," I tried.

Sam translated: "Squishy."

"Creative."

"Dangerously emo."

"Thoughtful."

"Feng shui."

I laughed so hard I snorted. "How do you get feng shui out of 'thoughtful'?"

"You know, because in feng shui, you arrange furniture and plants and stuff in thoughtful ways." Sam shrugged. "To make you calm. Zenlike. Or something. I'm not one hundred percent sure how it all works, besides the thoughtful part.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Shiver

“Words in the head are sticky and social creatures – when you finally pull one out, you're liable to get lots of bits of meanings that have rubbed onto them as a result of their palling around with other words.”
― Greg Carlson, Sold on Language: How Advertisers Talk to You and What This Says about You

“I lived on a #Parkavenue for 8 years…it didn't even cost me $23.8million; determining the value of my residence locations, didn't come to me through the face value of a currency denomination, but the credence I gave to my wealthy 'place'ment by real estate connotations.”
― Tracey Bond

“Saipov studied accounting in Uzbekistan. Then he got a U.S. green card and his life fell apart.”
― The Wall Street Journal

“Fine. I hate that word. One of the most useless words in the dictionary. It's the typical non-answer to everyone's favorite non-question, "How are you?" Just a totally empty word that says absolutely nothing.”
― Liane Shaw, Caterpillars Can't Swim