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Tongue Quotes

On sharp words and the edge they never lose.

Several lines here return to the same image: a sharp tongue behaves like a tool that only grows keener the more it gets used, unlike a temper, which is said never to soften with age. This page collects quotes built around that comparison. Related reading continues on Speech quotes.

Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue.

Quotes by Adam Clarke

My maternal grandmother made fantastic ox tongue with velvety roasted potatoes. She cooked sweet red cabbage and lovely cauliflower with butter and bread crumbs.

Quotes by Yotam Ottolenghi

If the quickness of the mind and the fluency of the tongue are too punctilious and sharp, moderate them in your activity and rest.

Quotes by Xun Kuang

Give thy thoughts no tongue.

William Shakespeare

Emotion Quotes

Why does the lizard stick his tongue out? The lizard sticks its tongue out because that's the way its listening and looking and tasting its environment. It's its means of appreciating what's in front of it.

Quotes by William Shatner

A quote is just a tattoo on the tongue.

Quotes by William F. DeVault

There is a silence, the child of love, which expresses everything, and proclaims more loudly than the tongue is able to do.

Quotes by William Drummond

Temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

Quotes by Washington Irving

The tongue is the only tool that gets sharper with use.

Quotes by Washington Irving

Expression Quotes

A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

Quotes by Washington Irving

A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.

Quotes by Washington Irving

Cockneys make good beggars. They are held in high esteem by the fraternity in America. Their resource, originality and invention, and a never-faltering tongue enable them to often attain their ends where others fail, and they succeed where the natives...

Quotes by W. H. Davies

We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.

Voltaire

I come up with the ideas for my videos, and I write the lyrics and choreograph them, and I direct them and tell everyone what to do and how I want them to sing the parts and do the tongue...

Quotes by Todrick Hall

Identity Quotes

There are accents in the eye which are not on the tongue, and more tales come from pale lips than can enter an ear. It is both the grandeur and the pain of the remoter moods that they avoid the...

Quotes by Thomas Hardy

The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It's inflammatory.

Quotes by Tennessee Williams

This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue.

Quotes by Tahar Ben Jelloun

Apl has a lot of songs that are paying homage to his native tongue. He's from the Philippines. He has songs inspired by his culture.

Quotes by Taboo

From the start, English has happily absorbed words from every tongue it's encountered.

Quotes by Susie Dent

Speech Quotes

English has always been a mongrel tongue, snapping up words from every continent its speakers encountered.

Quotes by Susie Dent

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the single idea running through this tongue quotes collection?
Nearly every entry restates the same image in slightly different words — a sharp tongue, like an "edge tool" or "edged tool," is the one blade that gets keener the more it's used, rather than dulling with wear.
Why does this collection repeat such a similar line?
It gathers several close variations of an old proverb about temper and sharp speech, showing how the same idea about wit sharpening with use gets rephrased across sources.
Is there a quote connecting tongue to temper?
Yes — more than one pairs the sharp-tongue image with the claim that "a tart temper never mellows with age," linking sharp speech directly to an unyielding personality.
Why would someone search tongue quotes?
Usually for a memorable line about cutting wit or sharp speech, and this collection is built almost entirely around that one striking metaphor.
Where can I read related quotes?
For the act of speaking itself, see Speech quotes, or for how ideas get voiced more broadly, Expression quotes.

The repetition across these quotes suggests how often writers have reached for the same warning about careless words. For nearby themes, try Emotion quotes or Expression quotes.