Euphemisms Quotes

“As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.”
― Gore Vidal

“Some kids get called 'bundles of joy' or 'slices of heaven' or 'dreams come true.' We got 'the fifty-fourth generation of DNA experiments.' Doesn't have the same warm and fuzzy feel. But maybe I'm oversensitive.”
― James Patterson, Angel

“In many a case, the phrase ‘I’d like to get to know you better’ is a euphemism for ‘I want us to fuck.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“To this day the f-word turns my stomach. Because 'fine' is a euphemism for everything you're scared of saying.”
― Amy Molloy, Wife, Interrupted

“Euphemisms persist because lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.”
― Bergen Evans

“She was appalled by West Egg’s raw vigour that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that eroded its inhabitants along a short-cut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Nature tells the truth as it is; it has no euphemism”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, Book of Wisdom

“Progressives' don’t just redefine (and valorize) deviancy; they insist on renaming it, too.”
― Kathy Shaidle

“Euphemisms chosen by fear are a covenant with hypocrisy and will immediately destroy the poem and eventually destroy the poet.”
― Lenore Kandel, Collected Poems of Lenore Kandel

“It's a guy thing. We like euphemisms. He could just as easily have said doing the nasty, shagging, banging, screwing, humping, baking the potato, boning, boom-boom, four-legged foxtrot, glazing the donut, hitting a home run, launching the meat missile, makin' bacon, opening the gates of Mordor, pelvic pinochle, planting the parsnip, releasing the kraken, rolling in the hay, stuffin' the muffin, or two-ball in the middle pocket..." He trailed off when he noticed their shocked expressions. "Or sex," he added. "He could have just said that."
"No wonder you don't have a girlfriend." Layla gave him a withering look. "I can't imagine a woman who would stick around after you took her for a nice dinner and then said, Hey babe, let's go launch the meat missile , or my personal favorite, release the kraken."
"I didn't say I used them." Sam loosened his collar. Why was the restaurant so damn hot?
"You know them. That's bad enough."
Dilip tipped his head to the side. "What's a kraken?"
"That's what I'm going to do to Sam's head in about three seconds," Layla said.
Sam smirked. "A kraken is an enormous mythical sea monster."
"Are we in middle school?" Layla looked around the bare room in mock confusion. "Because I could swear you were just talking about the size of your-”
― Sara Desai, The Marriage Game

“As her brother turned to walk away, she asked with mild exasperation, “Where are you going? Leo, you can’t leave when there’s so much to be done.”
He stopped and glanced back at her with a raised brow. “You’ve been pouring unsweetened tea down my throat for days. If you have no objection, I’d like to go out for a piss.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I can think of at least a dozen polite euphemisms you could have used.”
Leo continued on his way. “I don’t use euphemisms.”
“Or politeness,” she said, making him chuckle.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Mine Till Midnight

“Perhaps the most conspicuous one [pattern] he [Jonathon Green] found was how consistent, and how unsettling, the themes of our genitalia words have remained over time. As green told reporters shortly after his study was published, “The penis is often going to be some kid of weapon, the vagina some kind of narrow passage, intercourse some way of saying ‘man hits woman.”
― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

“Overall it’s really clear that the way we talk about genitals is a super concentrated representation of how we thing about sex and gender,” he [Lal Zimman] tells me. “The research that people have done on heteronormative gender naming really shows that our worst cultural values are reflected in the ways we talk about genitals. Like penises are always weapons that exist for penetrating, sex is always violence, and women and vaginas are passive and absence, just a place to put a penis.”
― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

“Just think of some of the most common verbs used to illustrate sex: bone, drill, screw. In the world of these words, the person with the erection is both the star and the narrator. If one were to describe sex from the vagina’s standpoint – to say something like, “We enveloped all night,” or “I sheathed the living daylights out of him,” or “we clitsmashed” – it would be such an exceptional rebellion against mainstream sex talk that to many listeners, it would be a real head-scratcher.”
― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

“My mother used euphemisms about everything. She used to announce her visits to the gynaecologist by saying she was seeing someone about her problems with the down belows. Made her sound a bit like a cruise ship that had been beached.”
― Lily Morton, Risk Taker

“If there is one place we should begin, it is with a resolve to not conceal sins, to not seal ourselves off from people's suffering by burying it under a mountain of vacuous bullshit. Euphemisms are an attempt to find pleasant words for an ugly reality, and in doing so, they allow their users to avoid feeling guilty or uncomfortable. This is why they are particularly common in the business world, where executives do not want to admit that they are ruining a lot of people's lives through mass firings and so discuss restructuring, outsourcing, redundancy, and streamlining. An independent contractor is a worker who has no benefits or guaranteed hours, and increasing efficiency often means making people do more work in less time.”
― Nathan J. Robinson, Why You Should Be a Socialist

“Euphemisms hide, erase, coat. Euphemisms lead us to tolerate the unacceptable. And, eventually, to forget. Against a euphemism, remembrance. In order to not repeat. Remember terms and meanings. Their absurd disjointedness. Term: Our Peculiar Institution. Meaning: slavery. (Epitome of all euphemisms.) Term: Removal. Meaning: expulsion and dispossession of people from their land. Term: Placing out. Meaning: expulsion of abandoned children from the East Coast. Term: Relocation. Meaning: confining people in reservations. Term: Reservations. Meaning: a wasteland, a sentence to perpetual poverty. Term: Removal. Meaning: expulsion of people seeking refuge. Term: Undocumented. Meaning: people who will be removed.”
― Valeria Luiselli, Lost Children Archive

“Karla’s face heated. “It, um, means to have sex with someone. We humans have a lot of euphemisms for sexual intercourse.”
He appeared intrigued. “Is that so?”
“Oh, yes. Um, let’s see here,” she said in a thoughtful tone. “There’s grinding the corn. Hitting a home run. Knocking boots. Peeling the banana. Making whoopee. And my personal favorite, the matrimonial polka.”
― Sue Mercury, Alien Warrior's Second Chance

“It’s hotter’n a blister bug in a pea
patch.”
― McCaid Paul, Sweet Tea & Snap Peas

“In fact, euphemisms are such a tender way to communicate I’m not sure why anyone bothers with the truth.”
― Janice Margolis, I Am Tom Waits!

“Judy 'preserved,' Homeland Security 'confiscated.' All these pretty names for theft. You hear more euphemisms for lying, cheating, even pedophilia, on the news in a week than you hear truth in a year.”
― Sara Paretsky, Critical Mass