Sticks and Stones: On the Underappreciated Power of Words

The old adage goes “actions speak louder than words,” and by and large, people seem to buy it. But I’m not sure that I do.

Actually, let me step that back a bit. I believe that actions are what is important. Actions are the things we do that affect other people. Actions move projects and people toward goals. Actions win wars, actions solidify peace, actions make and break relationships. Actions are clearly what make a life, and what make history.

But I believe that words are not separate from actions — words are actions. Writing and speech are actions — and powerful ones at that. When someone tells me their deeply held feelings, or pleads for attention in a way that is sincere and thought-provoking, that is powerful. Those words are actions that move me to feel a certain way, and then to do certain things — to take action. Words — whether printed or spoken — move people. To pretend that somehow that is not as powerful as a person physically moving about is tragically narrow-minded.

In fact, nearly any action that someone has taken that has had any impact can find its roots in words — either words that the person read or that they heard. Look no further than the Bible for proof of this theory.

The Crusades and Inquisition are a blight on the entirety of Christendom. Tens of thousands of people died from violence perpetuated by believers attempting to spread their religion across the world. But ask nearly any Christian today whether that dissuades them from practicing Christianity, and they will likely tell you that the important thing is what the Bible teaches — the words of the book. Those words outweigh the terrible actions that others have taken on behalf of the religion. The words have that power. The actions are brushed to the side.

The same is true of Islam. The words of the Qur’an — the message of peace and spiritual enrichment — outweigh the extreme and murderous actions of those who have killed in its name. The words have that power for those who spend the time with them. Believers believe in the power of those words.

These two examples are instances of a greater phenomenon — the ideal. If you look around, you can see it all over. Ideals are expressed in words, and by definition, not in actions — that’s what makes them ideals. They are not actions, but they pull us and push us more than mere actions ever could.

We live for ideals, we look to the words that put them into place to guide our entire lives. We don’t look to actions for that.

So even if actions do speak louder than words, they say a lot less, and though we may hear them, we don’t listen in the same way we listen to words.

Sticks and stones may hurt me, but words — words give me hope, purpose, and vitality. Sticks, stones, and whatever actions we may take using them will never do that.

Those who underestimate the power of words simply fail to realize something very important about the human spirit. Our spirit lives and dies for ideals — ideals forged in the furnace of words, both spoken and written. I write in order to move, I read in order to be moved.

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