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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“You live in a society that is shaped in every possible way by the Bible. The language you use, the laws you obey (and disobey), the founding principles of your nation, the disputes about abortion, homosexuality, adultery - these and so much else in your world are rooted in the Bible. You don't have to read it for its truth value. You should read it to understand how your world got the way it is, the way you would read the constitution or Shakespeare.”

WorldWayShouldUseLawValuesLanguageNationsPrinciplesConstitutionAbortionRootedHomosexualityFoundingDisputesAdultery
Author:David Plotz
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“I grew up in the theater, and you can't improvise Shakespeare and Ibsen. You have to speak the language. But obviously, in a contemporary film, there's often room for improvisation and spontaneous things that happen. As long as I know what I'm trying to achieve in the scene, and when something comes up, I know that the response is genuine, I'm comfortable. That's really how I build everything.”

KnowsTryingLongHappensFilmSpeakLanguageRoomsAchieveGrewSceneComfortableGrew UpTheaterResponseCome UpGenuineContemporarySpontaneousImprovisationIbsen
Author:Victor Garber
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“You often hear attacks on international adoption as robbing a child of his or her culture, and that's both true and false. It's true that an internationally adopted child loses the rich background of history and religion and culture and language that the child was born into, but the cruel fact is that most children don't have access to the local, beautiful culture within an orphanage.”

ChildrenFactsBeautifulCultureLanguageBornLosesRichInternationalAccessBackgroundsLocalsAdoptionAdoptedRobbingOrphanageTrue And FalseCulture And LanguageAdopted Children
Author:Melissa Fay Greene
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“I always say to young people, "Get the hell out of the United States." Especially if you're young, like if you're 21 or something. Let's say you don't speak any Italian. You're 21. Everyone's going to want to sleep with you and be nice to you. And the best way to learn a language is to sleep with someone from that country.”

PeopleIfsWayWantCountryStatesYoungSpeakLanguageSleepUnitedUnited StatesHellNiceBest WayItalianBeing NiceWant To Sleep
Author:David Sedaris
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“For centuries poets, some poets, have tried to give a voice to the animals, and readers, some readers, have felt empathy and sorrow. If animals did have voices, and they could speak with the tongues of angels-at the very least with the tongues of angels-they would be unable to save themselves from us. What good would language do? Their mysterious otherness has not saved them, nor have their beautiful songs and coats and skins and shells and eyes.”

IfsGivingWould BeEyeBeautifulSongSpeakLanguageFeltVoiceAnimalCenturyPoetReaderSorrowEmpathyAngelSkinsTongueSavedMysteriousShellsCoatsOtherness
Book:Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals
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“Turn strategy into simple language so every staff member knows it. People must understand why you are doing, what you are doing and where you are going. Big almost impossible, highly meaningful goal + respectful & supportive team is the winning combination of fear & love. Meaning is the biggest sources of energy that gets you up in the morning.”

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Author:Michael Rennie
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“When you depart from standard usage, it should be deliberate and not an accidental lapse. Like a poet who breaks the rules of poetry for creative effect, this only works when you know and respect the rule you are breaking. If you have never heard of the rules you are breaking, you have no right to do so, and you are likely to come off like a buffoon or a barbarian. Breaking rules, using slang and archaic language can be effective, but it is just as likely to give you an audience busy with wincing.”

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Author:N.D. Wilson
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“I think that metaphor really is a key to explaining thought and language. The human mind comes equipped with an ability to penetrate the cladding of sensory appearance and discern the abstract construction underneath - not always on demand, and not infallibly, but often enough and insightfully enough to shape the human condition. Our powers of analogy allow us to apply ancient neural structures to newfound subject matter, to discover hidden laws and systems in nature, and not least, to amplify the expressive power of language itself.”

ThinkingMindHumansMatterEnoughLawLanguageAbilityConditionsSubjectsKeysShapesDemandStructureAncientMetaphorAppearanceAbstractHuman MindConstructionHuman ConditionExplainingPenetrateSubject MatterAnalogiesSensoryExpressiveAmplifyPower Of Language
Book:The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
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“Language and, presumably, literature are more ancient and inevitable, more durable than any form of social organization. The revulsion, irony, or indifference often expressed by literature toward the state is essentially the reaction of the permanent-better yet, the infinite-against the temporary, against the finite.”

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Author:Joseph Brodsky
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“What's happening is the language. Not only in the usual sense of being interesting (which it is), but in the new sense that words are events, as real and important in themselves as wars and lovers... It is to the word, then, that the mind moves, and the word responds by taking on a physicality, even a sensuality, we have all been trained to ignore. Words have weight, and the distance between two can be a chasm filled with forces of association... What Clark is doing is genuinely new.”

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Author:Ron Silliman
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