Recently my brother and I were swapping stories about our childhood peccadilloes and the punishments that usually followed. One thing was certain: When Mom and Daddy caught us in our misadventures and promised to tend to us later, they kept their word. We not only learned that actions have consequences, we learned our parents meant what they said.

Most people seem to take a more ambiguous approach to life than our parents. They’ve discovered the easiest way to avoid conflict is to avoid making firm commitments or saying anything meaningful. Instead they waffle and warble, acting out the advice Rolling Stones’ front man Mick Jagger once said he picked up from singer Fats Domino: Never sing the lyrics very clearly.

It doesn’t really matter whether you’re excused to kiss “the sky” or “this guy” when you’re jamming with Jimi Hendrix on “Purple Haze.” But if your word is to be your bond, it also should be clear … and substantive. Here are a few more thoughts on speaking with conviction:

“There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.”

—Thomas Reid, philosopher

“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”

—John Bunyan, author

“The finest words in the world are only vain sounds if you cannot understand them.”

—Anatole France, writer

“The devil is the author of confusion.”

—Robert Burton, clergyman and scholar

“How often misused words generate misleading thoughts.”

—Herbert Spencer, philosopher

“I detest the man who hides one thing in the depth of his heart and speaks forth another.”

—Homer, epic poet

“Those who talk on the razor-edge of double-meanings pluck the rarest blooms from the precipice on either side.”

—Logan Pearsall Smith, essayist and aphorist

“Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.”

—Reported last words of Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary