Careful Words

reed (n.)

reed (v.)

reed (adj.)

  Thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed.

Old Testament: Isaiah xxxvi. 6.

  A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench.

Old Testament: Isaiah xlii. 3.

  Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): Thoughts. Chap. ii. 10.