Quotessence
Home / Topics / Language Quotes

Language Quotes

Browse 9447 quotes about Language.

Related topics

IfsPeopleSpeakThinkingWorldWayUseWritingKnowsMenEnglish LanguageHumansBookDifferentMeanFirstsCommunicationTryingWantArtShouldCultureNeedsKindMayFeelsFormIdeasMindWellsDoeTwoCountryChildrenLiteratureBodyHas BeensYearsImportantGivingFeelingsHeartSaidUsedCommonStoriesFactsLittlesWrittenSpeechMadeStillsUniversalForeign LanguageLongLooksMusic IsSoulPersonsBelieveSometimesSoundI CanMatterRealityPoetTongueCommunicateRealReasonSeemsWholeUnderstandingWould BeAbleTermNamesTranslationsSilenceProblemProgrammingEnoughSentencesStatesExpressionEndsTogetherAgeOrderPlayCharacterDifficultCertainMathematicsPoliticalCoursesHelpingNaturalReadingBody Languagemore

Language Quotes

“Political correctness is a concept invented by hard-rightwing forces to defend their right to be racist, to treat women in a degrading way and to be truly vile about gay people. They invent this idea of people who are politically correct, with a rigid, monstrous attitude to life so they can attack. But we have all had to learn to modify our language. That's all part of being a decent human being.”

PeopleWayHumansIdeasHardPoliticalLanguageForceHuman BeingsAttitudeGayConceptsTreatsDecentRacistMonstrousPolitical CorrectnessGay PeopleCorrectnessPolitically CorrectDegrading
Author:Clare Short
Create image

“The more we sink into the infirmities of age, the nearer we are to immortal youth. All people are young in the other world. That state is an eternal spring, ever fresh and flourishing. Now, to pass from midnight into noon on the sudden, to be decrepit one minute and all spirit and activity the next, must be a desirable change. To call this dying is an abuse of language.”

PeopleWorldStatesAgeYoungDeathSpiritNextLanguageMinutesDyingYouthActivityEternalSpringAbuseImmortalMidnightDesirableOther WorldsNoonFlourishingOne MinuteInfirmityDecrepit
Author:Jeremy Collier
Create image

“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”

KindReasonLanguageCostSpeechOvercomingVery GoodTongueCirclesSophisticatedSnakesWillpowerAvoidedForeignersImpedimentsForeign LanguagePreludeSpeaking In TonguesSpeech Impediment
Book:WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
Create image

“Lying is the misuse of language. We know that. We need to remember that it works the other way round too. Even with the best intentions, language misused, language used stupidly, carelessly, brutally, language used wrongly, breeds lies, half-truths, confusion. In that sense you can say that grammar is morality. And it is in that sense that I say a writer's first duty is to use language well.”

KnowsWayNeedsFirstsWellsUseRememberUsedLyingLanguageHalfDutyMoralityIntentionRoundsConfusionGrammarMisuseHalf TruthMisusedBest Intentions
Book:Steering the craft: exercises and discussions on story writing for the lone navigator or the mutinous crew
Create image

“Anyone who has undergone home repair lately knows that your everyday artisan uses language so loosely and makes false promises so glibly as to make your politicians, even the presidential candidate, seem like a model of accuracy and rectitude. 'Be there Wednesday at nine,' the workman will tell you. It is a lie. He is humoring you. He says it to silence you, the way you tell a child you will take it to Disneyland if it will stop crying.”

IfsKnowsWayChildrenUseHomeSeemsLyingLanguageSilenceCryPoliticianPromiseModelsEverydayNinePresidentialCandidatesAccuracyDisneylandWednesdayPresidential CandidateWorkmenArtisansRectitudeFalse Promises
Author:Mary McGrory
Create image

“I don't think it is always necessary to take up the anti-colonial -- or is it post-colonial? -- cudgels against English. What seems to me to be happening is that those people who were once colonized by the language are now rapidly remaking it, domesticating it, becoming more and more relaxed about the way they use it -- assisted by the English language's enormous flexibility and size, they are carving out large territories for themselves within its frontiers.”

PeopleThinkingWayUseSeemsLanguageBecomingHappeningsSizeEnormousPostsTerritoryRelaxedFlexibilityEnglish LanguageFrontiersBecoming MoreCarving
Author:Salman Rushdie
Create image

“The source of each accordant strain Lies deeper than the Poet's brain. First from the people's heart must spring The passions which he learns to sing; They are the wind, the harp is he, To voice their fitful melody,-- The language of their varying fate, Their pride, grief, love, ambition, hate,-- The talisman which holds inwrought The touchstone of the listener's thought; That penetrates each vain disguise, And brings his secret to his eyes.”

PeopleFirstsHeartEyeLyingHatePassionLanguageVoiceGriefSecretBrainFatePoetWindSourcePrideAmbitionSpringDeeperVainHis EyesMelodyDisguiseListenersStrainPenetrateHarpsTouchstonesTalismans
Book:The Poems
Create image

“This is what happens when the discourse of publishing, defined and driven by spoken and written language, is talked about in exactly the same vocabulary and syntax as any widgetmaking industry. Books are reformulated as 'product' - like screwdrivers or flea-bombs or soap - and the majority of writers are perceived as typists with bad attitudes.”

BookHappensLanguageAttitudeWrittenProductsIndustryMajorityDrivenDefinedBombsPublishingDiscourseVocabularySoapFleasBad AttitudeSyntaxWritten LanguageScrewdrivers
Author:Suzette Haden Elgin
Create image

“New perspectives give birth to new historic ages. Humankind has had many dramatic revolutions of understanding - great uses of fire and the wheel, language and writing. We found that the earth only seems flat, the sun only seems to circle the earth, matter only seems solid.”

GivingWritingMatterUseSeemsAgeEarthFoundLanguageUnderstandingSunFireRevolutionPerspectiveBirthCirclesDramaticWheelsFlatsHumankindHistoricNew Perspective
Book:The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s
Create image

“The breakdown of our language, evident in the misuse, i.e., the misunderstanding of nouns and adjectives, is most grave, though perhaps not so conspicuous, in the handling of prepositions, those modest little connectives that hold the parts of a phrase or a sentence together. They are the joints of any language, what make it, literally, articulate.”

LittlesTogetherLanguageSentencesGravesPhrasesModestEvidentMisunderstandingJointsBreakdownAdjectivesMisuseNounsPrepositions
Book:Occasional prose
Create image

“In America, even your menus have the gift of language.... The Chef's own Vienna Roast. A hearty, rich meat loaf, gently seasoned to perfection and served in a creamy nest of mashed farm potatoes and strictly fresh garden vegetables. Of course, what you get is cole slaw and a slab of meat, but that doesn't matter because the menu has already started your juices going. Oh, those menus. In America, they are poetry.”

MatterAmericaCoursesLanguageRichFoodGardenPerfectionCookingMeatCulinaryFarmsVegetablesChefPotatoesJuiceNestsMenusViennaHeartySlabs
Author:Laurie Lee
Create image

“Sauces in cookery are like the first rudiments of grammar - the foundation of all languages.”

FirstsLanguageFoodFoundationCookingCulinaryGrammarSauceCookery
Book:The Modern Housewife: Or, Ménagère. Comprising Nearly One Thousand Receipts, for the Economic and Judicious Preparation of Every Meal of the Day, and Those for the Nursery and Sick Room; and Minute Directions for Family Management in All Its Branches. Illustrated with Engravings Including the Modern Housewife's Unique Kitchen, and Magic Stove
Create image