Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Names

Favor or disappointment has been often conceded, as the name of the claimant has affected us; and the accidental affinity or coincidence of a name, connected with ridicule or hatred, with pleasure or disgust, has operated like magic.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith

And we were angry and poor and happy, and proud of seeing our names in print.
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.
Chinese Proverb

If names are not correct, language will not be in accordance with the truth of things.
Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher

Miss: A title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market. Miss, Misses (Mrs.) and Mister (Mr.) are the three most distinctly disagreeable words in the language, in sound and sense. Two are corruptions of Mistress, the other of Master. If we must have them, let us be consistent and give one to the unmarried man. I venture to suggest Mush, abbreviated to MH.
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist

Good name, in man or woman, is the immediate jewel of their souls.—Who steals my purse steals trash; but he that filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright

I came to live in a country I love; some people label me a defector. I have loved men and women in my life; I’ve been labeled “the bisexual defector” in print. Want to know another secret? I’m even ambidextrous. I don’t like labels. Just call me Martina.
Martina Navratilova (b.1956) Czech-born American Sportsperson

Great names degrade instead of elevating those who know not how to sustain them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer

We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.
Milan Kundera (b.1929) Czech Novelist

The invisible thing called a Good Name is made up of the breath of numbers that speak well of you.
E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (1881–1959) British Politician, Political leader

He lives who dies to win a lasting name.
Henry Drummond

I have a passion for the name of “Mary,” For once it was a magic sound to me, And still it half calls up the realms of fairy, Where I beheld what never was to be.
Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet

Don’t call me an icon. I’m just a mother trying to help.
Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–97) English Royal, Humanitarian, Peace Activist

The names that do the serious damage are the ones we call ourselves. The stereotypes we give ourselves are the ones that matter in the long run, not the ones imposed on us by other people.
Judith Rich Harris (1938–2018) American Psychologist

Better to see the face than to hear the name.
Unknown

It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright

Who hath not owned, with rapture-smitten frame, the power of grace, the magic of a name.
William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer

Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.
English Proverb

Names, says an old maxim, “are things.”—They certainly are influences.—Impressions are left and opinions are shaped by them.—Virtue is disparaged, and vice countenanced, and so encouraged by them. The mean and selfish talk of their prudence and economy; the vain and proud prate about self-respect; obstinacy is called firmness, and dissipation the enjoyment of life; seriousness is ridiculed as cant, and strict morality and integrity, as needless scrupulosity; and so men deceive themselves, and society is led to look leniently, or with indifference, on what ought to be sharply condemned.
Tryon Edwards (1809–94) American Theologian, Author

The future has many names: For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity.
Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist

Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable.
W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist

Names are changed more readily than doctrines, and doctrines more readily than ceremonies.
Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) English Satirist, Novelist, Author

A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my name aright, he can call me, and is entitled to my love and service.
Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher

In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.
Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician

A name is a kind of face whereby one is known; wherefore taking a false name is a kind of visard whereby men disguise themselves.
Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian

God has many names, though He is only one Being.
Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar

Nicknames stick to people, and the most ridiculous are the most adhesive.
Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Jurist

A nickname is the hardest stone that the devil can throw at a man.
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist

I think a child should be allowed to take his father’s or mother’s name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction.
James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet

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