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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“We sift reality through screens composed of ideas . (And such ideas have their roots in older ideas.) Such idea systems are necessarily limited by language , by the ways we can describe them. That is to say: language cuts the grooves in which our thoughts move. If we seek new validity forms (other laws and other orders) we must step outside language.”

IfsWayIdeasRealityMovingFormLawOrderLanguageStepsCuttingRootsScreensOur ThoughtsValidityGroove
Author:Frank Herbert
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“When we say 'time', I believe we mean at least two things. We mean changes. And we mean something unchangeable. We mean something that moves . but against an unmoving background. And vice versa.Animals can sense changes. But consciousness of time involves the double sense of constancy and change. Which can only be attributed to those who give expression to it. And that can only be done through language, and only man has language.The perception of time and language are inextricably bound up with one another.”

MenGivingBelieveMeanTwoDoneMovingLanguageI BelieveAnimalConsciousnessExpressionPerceptionBoundsVicesBackgroundsTwo ThingsVice VersaConstancyUnchangeable
Book:Borderliners: A Novel
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“Neither an enlightened philosophy, nor all the political wisdom of Rome, nor even the faith and virtue of the Christians availed against the incorrigible tradition of antiquity. Something was wanted, beyond all the gifts of reflection and experience - a faculty of self government and self control, developed like its language in the fibre of a nation, and growing with its growth.”

SelfPhilosophyGovernmentWantedChristianPoliticalLanguageNationsGrowthVirtueGrowingReflectionTraditionEnlightenedFacultyRomeSelf ControlAntiquitySelf-governmentIncorrigiblePolitical Wisdom
Author:Lord Acton
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“We must now turn from considering the necessary struggle with language arising, as it were, from its very nature and the nature of the society it serves to the more ominous threat to its integrity brought about neither by its innate inadequacy nor yet by the incompetence and carelessness of its ordinary users, but rather engineered deliberately by those who will manipulate words for their own ends.”

EndsTurnsLanguageStruggleIntegrityOrdinaryThreatUsersConsideringManipulateInnateIncompetenceInadequacyCarelessnessOminous
Book:Hopes and impediments: selected essays
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“The selective instinct of the artist tells him when his language should be homely, and when it should be more elevated; and it is precisely in the imperceptible blending of the plain with the ornate that a great writer is distinguished. He uses the simplest phrases without triviality, and the grandest without a suggestion of grandiloquence.”

ShouldUseArtistLanguageInstinctPhrasesSuggestionsSimplestDistinguishedGreat WritersSelectiveTrivialityHomely
Book:The Principles of Success in Literature
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“After all, in both languages we were dealing in large measure not with English and French, but with Scots and Irish, Bretons and Normans ... There could be no more eloquent illustration of the colonial mind-set than a bunch of Celts and Vikings in a distant northern territory insulting each other as les Anglais and the French as if they were the descendants of the people who had subjected and ruined them.”

PeopleIfsMindLanguageBunchTerritoryRuinedInsultingEloquentIllustrationDescendantsVikingsMind SetScotsCelts
Author:John Ralston Saul
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“One must not consider a language as a product dead, and formed but once; it is an animate being, and ever creative. Human thought elaborates itself with the progress of intelligence; and of this thought language is a manifestation. An idiom cannot therefore remain stationary; it walks, it develops, it grows up, it fortifies itself, it becomes old, and it reaches decrepitude.”

HumansLanguageGrowsWalksCreativeGrowing UpProgressProductsManifestationHuman ThoughtIdiomStationary
Author:Wilhelm von Humboldt
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“Community is another such phenomenon. Like electricity, it is profoundly lawful. Yet there remains something about it that is inherently mysterious, miraculous, unfathomable. Thus there is no adequate one-sentence definition of genuine community. Community is something more than the sum of its parts, its individual members. What is this "something more?" Even to begin to answer that, we enter a realm that is not so much abstract as almost mystical. It is a realm where words are never fully suitable and language itself falls short.”

FallIndividualLanguageCommunityAnswersMembersRemainsDefinitionsSentencesGenuineMysteriousRealmsAbstractPhenomenonElectricityMysticalAdequateMiraculousSuitableUnfathomableOne Sentence
Book:The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace
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“King is a title which translated into several languages, signifies a magistrate with as many different degrees of power as there are kingdoms in the world, and he can have no power but what is given him by law; yea, even the supreme or legislative power is bound by the rules of equity, to govern by laws enacted, and published in due form; for what is not legal is arbitrary.”

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Book:A Supplement to the Miscellaneous Works of the Late Dr. Arbuthnot
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“We started off with physical evolution and got our form. Then we somehow developed language, which meant cultural evolution could race so we could change our behavior really quickly instead of over hundreds and hundreds of years. And then comes moral evolution, which means we're not frightfully far along with people. And maybe we end up with a spiritual evolution, which is this connectedness with the rest of the life forms on the planet.”

PeopleYearsMeanEndsSpiritualFormLanguageRaceMoralPlanetsEvolutionBehaviorConnectednessSpiritual Evolution
Author:Jane Goodall
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“In truth, the best long-term explanations about our ancient counterparts can be found in the paintings, sculpture, crafts, tools of utility, language and architecture left behind. These are the building blocks of civilization we call culture. These are what we call 'the arts.”

LongArtCultureFoundLeftLanguageTermBehindsBuildingPaintingCivilizationToolsAncientArchitectureBlockCraftsExplanationLong TermSculptureLeft BehindUtilityCounterpartsBuilding Blocks
Author:Edward J. Fraughton
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“I put myself in the student's place and remember the frustrations, doubts, determination, and desires I felt when I was going through the initial learning process. The things we now do automatically, such as perspective, pencil control, values and composition were as unfamiliar and intimidating as a foreign language.”

RememberDesireValuesLanguageFeltProcessDoubtStudentsPerspectiveDeterminationFrustrationCompositionPencilsInitialsIntimidatingUnfamiliarLearning ProcessWorkshopsForeign Language
Author:Ted Martinez
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“And there are also languages that divide nouns into much more specific genders. The African language Supyire from Mali has five genders: humans, big things, small things, collectives, and liquids. Bantu languages such as Swahili have up to ten genders, and the Australian language Ngan’gityemerri is said to have fifteen different genders, which include, among others, masculine human, feminine human, canines, non-canine animals, vegetables, drinks, and two different genders for spears (depending on size and material).”

HumansSaidTwoDifferentBigsLanguageAnimalFiveMaterialsDrinkTenSizeGenderCollectivesFeminineDividesVegetablesFifteenBig ThingsMasculineSmall ThingsAustralianLiquidSpearsCanineNounsMali
Author:Guy Deutscher
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