50 Tongue Quotes to Speak Your Mind

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Published May 13, 2023

Regarding the best tongue quotes, this is the article for you.

Here, we have curated a list of the most popular and relevant tongue quotes.

These quotes are so interesting that you can share them via any social media platform.

In addition to our tongue quotes, we have also discussed the tongue, its anatomy, and its essential functions.

If interested, please continue reading!

An Intro to the Tongue

The tongue is an organ in our mouth, which plays different critical roles for us.

These include taste, speech, and swallowing the food.

It is among the most versatile organs in our body.

The muscles located in the tongue are strong and can offer the required amount of stiffness.

In addition, the outer layer of the tongue is sensitive and can differentiate between different tastes.

Anatomy of the Tongue

Our tongue consists of eight muscles, which help with its movement.

All these muscles are connected with the hyoid bone.

This allows the tongue to move in different directions.

There is a mucous membrane that protects the tongue and contains taste buds.

Certain pores are located at the top of our tongue, which also secrete saliva.

This helps move the food within our mouth and helps with digestion.

Key Functions of the Tongue

Here are the most important function of a tongue in our body:

Helps with Swallowing
Taste Perception
Speech

Helps with Chewing and Swallowing

We can chew and swallow our food with the help of our tongues.

The tongue allows the food to move around the mouth and absorb the required amount of saliva.

Hence, we can easily swallow all types of food, whether soft or hard.

Speech

It is one of the most essential roles played by a tongue.

With the help of a tongue, we can speak and communicate with each other.

This happens when our tongue works in close coordination with other organs located in the mouth.

These include:

Teeth
Lips
Vocal cord

Taste Perception

We can taste our food with the help of our tongues.

This is possible, as our tongue contains taste buds.

These taste buds can detect five types of basic tastes, including:

Sweet
Sour
Bitter
Salty
Umami (savory)

After identifying the taste, the taste buds immediately send signals to our brains.

As a result, our brain interprets the flavor and taste of the food.

You will also enjoy our article on eyes quotes.

Top 10 Tongue Quotes

Let’s check out the best tongue quotes to read and share.

1. “Give thy thoughts no tongue.” — William Shakespeare

2. “The pen is the tongue of the mind.” — Horace

3. “I will speak with a straight tongue.” — Chief Joseph

4. “Let your tongue speak what your heart thinks.” — Davy Crockett

5. “Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.” — Virginia Woolf

6. “I drink for effect because it loosens up the tongue a little bit.” — Peter Steele

7. “I never show the back of my tongue. That is a Dutch expression.” — Ben van Berkel

8. “Swollen in head, weak in legs, sharp in tongue but empty in the belly.” — Mao Zedong

9. “My mother tongue is Telugu. I was born and brought up in Tamil Nadu.” — Aishwarya Rajesh

10. “I don’t deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.” — Flannery O’Connor

Golden Tongue Quotes

Here are some golden tongue quotes to know more about the tongue.

11. “Before the tongue can speak, it must have lost the power to wound.” — Peace Pilgrim

12. “A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.” — Washington Irving

13. “This is courtship all the world over – the man all tongue; the woman all ears.” — Emily Murphy

14. “The sweetest noise on earth, a woman’s tongue; A string which hath no discord.” — Bryan Procter

15. “For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been’.” — John Greenleaf Whittier

16. “Gray hairs are signs of wisdom if you hold your tongue, speak and they are but hairs, as in the young.” — Rabindranath Tagore

17. “You can change your world by changing your words… Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.” — Joel Osteen

18. “The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

19. “A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.” — Hal Borland

20. “Listen! Clam up your mouth and be silent like an oyster shell, for that tongue of yours is the enemy of the soul, my friend. When the lips are silent, the heart has a hundred tongues.” — Rumi

Hold Your Tongue Quotes

Holding your tongue is a good approach. So, read the following quotes on how to hold your tongue.

21. “For God’s sake, hold your tongue, and let me love.” — John Donne

22. “Let a fool hold his tongue, and he will pass for a sage.” — Publilius Syrus

23. “I’m doing pretty good on my own when I can control my tongue.” — Pimp C

24. “The new Germany has the unquestionable right to hold its tongue between its teeth.” — Karl Liebknecht

25. “Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.” — Richard Steele

26. “The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust.” — Josh Billings

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

28. “I am really bad at holding my tongue because it comes naturally for me to say what’s on my mind.” — Liz Cambage

29. “If it’s very painful for you to criticize your friends – you’re safe in doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that’s the time to hold your tongue.” — Alice Miller

30. “Put a bridle on thy tongue; set a guard before thy lips, lest the words of thine own mouth destroy thy peace… on much speaking cometh repentance, but in silence is safety.” — William Drummond

Philosophical Tongue Quotes

Find wisdom and inspiration with these profound Philosophical Tongue Quotes.

31. “If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

32. “The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.” — Leonardo da Vinci

33. “A woman may have a witty tongue or a stinging pen, but she will never laugh at her own individual shortcomings.” — Irvin S. Cobb

34. “Good copy can’t be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You’ve got to believe in the product.” — David Ogilvy

35. “A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is an only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.” — Washington Irving

36. “Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen.” — Maimonides

37. “We must teach science in the mother tongue. Otherwise, science will become a highbrow activity. It will not be an activity in which all people can participate.” — C. V. Raman

38. “He that will write well in any tongue, must follow this counsel of Aristotle, to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do: and so should every man understand him, and the judgment of wise men allow him.” — Roger Ascham

39. “Parents don’t reveal how often they have bitten their tongue, fought back the tears, or been too tired to take off their clothes after a day of childcare. The parent loves, but they do not expect the favor to be returned in any significant way.” — Alain de Botton

40. “People often think that looking in the mirror is about narcissism. Children look at their reflections to see who they are. And they want to see what they can do with it, how plastic they can be if they can touch their nose with their tongue, or what it looks like when they cross their eyes.” — Anjelica Huston

Additional Tongue Quotes

Below are some more amazing tongue quotes that you will love to read and share.

41. “All parts of the human body get tired eventually – except the tongue.” — Konrad Adenauer

42. “Fighting is essentially a masculine idea; a woman’s weapon is her tongue.” — Hermione Gingold

43. “I just stick my tongue out because I hate smiling in pictures. It’s so awkward. It looks so cheesy.” — Miley Cyrus

44. “Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.” — Charles Caleb Colton

45. “Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.” — Sallust

46. “There is something wrong about cheese-flavored crisps. I love the way Quavers melt on your tongue, they’ve got good structure, but I’m into the flavor.” — Vick Hopenot

47. “The gracious, eternal God permits the spirit to green and bloom and to bring forth the most marvelous fruit, surpassing anything a tongue can express, and a heart conceive.” — Johannes Tauler

48. “After I became a citizen, I felt freer to say what I thought about this country, both negative and positive. I think I had been, consciously and subconsciously, biting my tongue in the past.” — Robert MacNeil

49. “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 pathway of sound.” — Thomas Hardy

50. “Why does the lizard stick his tongue out? The lizard sticks its tongue out because that’s the way it’s listening and looking and tasting its environment. It’s its means of appreciating what’s in front of it.” — William Shatner