Swear Words Quotes

“A vulgar word, well placed and said with just enough vigour, can express far more than its polite equivalent.”
― Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

“If this child is part of The Plan, then The Plan was that I would be raped. If this child is not part of The Plan, then my rape was a violation of The Plan, in which case The Plan is not a Plan at all, but a Polite fucking Suggestion”
― Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

“If human beings weren’t ‘dumbable’ enough to be made soldiers, war would be nothing but an exchange of swear words between a handful of individuals.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“He smelled the smells of commerce and listened to the cursing of the sailors, both of which he admired: the former, as it reeked of wealth, and the latter because it combined his two other chief preoccupations, these being theology and anatomy.”
― Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light

“On the board was a list of words and phrases which her mother considered not suitable for use in college T-shirt design. She had been asked about them so often that in the end she had started a blacklist of banned words to which everyone could refer. Every time someone thought of a new one, she unflinchingly wrote it down...

Rose read through the list, and turned back to her letter.

These are the words I learned to spell in Mummy's art class today, she wrote, and sighed a little as she began the tedious job of copying from the board.”
― Hilary McKay, Indigo's Star

“What a shame swear words aren't allowed in diplomacy.”
― Ayse Kulin

“Francie had heard swearing since she had heard words. Obscenity and profanity had no meaning as such among those people. They were emotional expressions of inarticulate people with small vocabularies; they made a kind of dialect. The phrases could mean many things according to the expression and tone used in saying them. So now, when Francie heard themselves called lousy bastards, she smiled tremulously at the kind man. She knew that he was really saying, “Goodbye—God bless you.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Minsk! How pissed-off that sounded! It was great. You could scare the bejayzus out of someone if you said it right.”
― Marian Keyes, The Brightest Star in the Sky

“Was it more obscene to say it, to write it, or to set it in type? On the breath it could taken by a breeze or crowded out by chatter; it could be misheard or ignored. On the page it was a real thing. It had been caught and pinned to a board, its letters spread in a particular way so that anyone who saw it would know what it was.”
― Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

“He swore loudly, confused. I won't repeat the word here. I'm a gentleman.”
― rose christo, Looks Over

“He was a bad, bad bastard. He abused the privilege of being a cunt, as my old Da would say.’ I smiled, picturing the cozy fireside scene of young son on father’s knee being inducted into the world of abusive epithets.”
― Craig Russell, The Long Glasgow Kiss

“Owl's bowels!”
― Sage Blackwood, Miss Ellicott's School for the Magically Minded

“Was mom pissed?"
"Women get pissed about all kinds of things. It's best not to even think about it. Now, normally, I would tell you not to use the word pissed. But we're in the woods, and we're men. And we can use the word pissed."
"Can I use the word fuck?"
"Can your mom hear you?
"I don't think so."
"Well, there's your answer then. Out here in the woods we will swear like men.”
― Don Zolidis, The Seven Torments of Amy and Craig

“Here’s one of my favorite cursing facts from Phonology 101: swears are the only types of English words that you can use as an infix.”
― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Hilarious and Informative Exploration of Gendered Language and Its Impact on Women

“Fricking son of a popcorn pimp!”
― Pawan Mishra, Coinman: An Untold Conspiracy

“Fuck,' I said after a while, because like a little black dress it's the old standby.”
― Tricia Sullivan, Maul

“I remember a whole session at the Actors Studio in New York on the cathartic value of the word “fuck”: swear words are liberating for a method actor. In the film, on the contrary, I had to maintain the reality of my character, while speaking a strictly cultured language: it has been a real challenge. I would have liked it so much to be able to say also some crudity…!”
― Giovanni Morassutti

“Putain' literally means 'prostitute', but the meaning has evolved with the years, it has left the red light district to settle as a daily word, it is quite common, it lives near the onomatopoeias area, because, phonetically, it is such a convenient word to express when having to emphasise a feeling as it almost acts like an exclamation mark.”
― Alain Bremond-Torrent, "Darling, it's not only about sex"

“A curious mind probing for truth may well set your scribbling ass free.”
― Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir

“Is a swear an inadequacy of language, the moment words fail us? Or is it the purest kind of language we have, second only to singing?”
― Jen Hadfield, Storm Pegs: A Life Made in Shetland