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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“To me, a poem is almost like someone whispering to another person, or you hear the whispering in your head. I hope with my own poems that the reader feels a connection, soul to soul, that'll help us all feel a little less alone on the planet. And it does have the power to direct change. A writer can make the word 'dark' be something positive. You can relieve a word like 'hysterical' of its misogynistic implications. You can make the language your own. That's what poetry is about.”

FeelsLittlesPersonsDoeSoulHelpingLanguageDarkMy OwnPlanetsReaderDirectConnectionsPoetry IsImplicationsWhisperingHysterical
Author:Rita Dove
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“What are the precise characteristics of an epigram it is not easy to define. It differs from a joke, in the fact that the wit of the latter dies in the words, and cannot therefore be conveyed in another language; while an epigram is a wit of ideas, and hence, is translatable. Like aphorisms, songs and sonnets, it is occupied with some single point, small and manageable; but whilst a song conveys a sentiment, a sonnet a poetical, and an aphorism a moral reflection, an epigram expresses a contrast.”

IdeasFactsSongDiesLanguageEasyMoralJokesReflectionWitCharacteristicsLatterSentimentsContrastAphorismPreciseSonnetEpigramsManageable
Author:William Matthews
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“All communication is more or less cross-cultural. We learn to use language as we grow up, and growing up in different parts of the country, having different ethnic, religious, or class backgrounds, even just being male or female - all result in different ways of talking.”

WayDifferentCountryUseLanguageGrowsReligiousResultsTalkingClassGrowing UpGrowingCommunicationFemaleCrossesMalesBackgroundsDifferent WaysJust BeingWay Of Talking
Book:That's not what I meant!: how conversational style makes or breaks your relations with others
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“Not only the individual experience slowly acquired, but the accumulated experience of the race, organized in language, condensed in instruments and axioms, and in what may be called the inherited intuitions--these form the multiple unity which is expressed in the abstract term "experience.”

MayFormIndividualLanguageTermRaceExperienceInstrumentsUnityIntuitionAbstractOrganizedMultipleAxioms
Book:Problems of Life and Mind: v.1-2 . The foundations of a creed
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“Day and night, and every moment, there are voices about us. All the hours speak as they pass; and in every event there is a message to us; and all our circumstances talk with us; but it is in Divine language, that worldliness misunderstands, that selfishness is frightened at, and that only the children of God hear rightly and happily.”

ChildrenMomentsGodNightSpeakLanguageVoiceHoursEventsDivineCircumstancesMessagesSelfishnessFrightenedDay And NightChild Of GodWorldliness
Book:Euthanasy: Or, Happy Talk Towards the End of Life
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“In many patriarchies, language, as well as cultural tradition, reserve the human condition for the male. With the Indo-European languages this is a nearly inescapable habit of mind, for despite all the customary pretense that 'man' and 'humanity' are terms which apply equally to both sexes, the fact is hardly obscured that in practice, general application favors the male far more often than the female as referent, or even sole referent, for such designations.”

MenMindHumansWellsFactsHumanityLanguageSexTermPracticeConditionsHabitFemaleTraditionMalesFavorsDespiteApplicationHuman ConditionSoleReservesPatriarchyPretenseHabits Of MindDesignation
Author:Kate Millett
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“We all need to learn a new language for love - a language that speaks not in socks, pancakes, and paychecks, but in shared fascination with physics or poetry, delight in each other's uniqueness, and mutual practical and emotional support.”

NeedsSpeakLanguageSupportEmotionalDelightPhysicsPracticalsMutualUniquenessFascinationSockPaychecksPancakesEmotional Support
Book:Wishcraft: How to Get what You Really Want
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“Martina Navratilova is not a 'girl,' nor is Debi Thomas or Katarina Witt, and the women skaters weren't 'cute' in 1988. The problem with describing women as girls is that they never grow up and therefore can't take positions of authority in the world of sport. But the good news is that you can change language, so ultimately you can change the picture of women in sports.”

WorldProblemGirlLanguageGrowsSportsGrowing UpPositionAuthorityNewsCuteGood NewsDescribingSkater
Author:Anita DeFrantz
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“Although music appeals simply to the emotions, and represents no definite images in itself, we are justified in using any language which may serve to convey to others our musical expressions. Words will often pave the way for the more subtle operations of music, and unlock the treasures which sound alone can rifle, and hence the eternal popularity of song.”

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Book:Music and morals
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“My research suggests that men and women may speak different languages that they assume are the same, using similar words to encode disparate experiences of self and social relationships. Because these languages share an overlapping moral vocabulary, they contain a propensity for systematic mistranslation.”

MenMayDifferentSelfSpeakLanguageSocialMoralShareResearchMen And WomenAssumingVocabularySystematicPropensityDifferent LanguagesOverlappingSocial Relationships
Book:In a Different Voice
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“Labels not only free us from the obligation to think creatively; they numb our sensibilities, our power to feel. During the Vietnam War, the phrase body count entered our vocabulary. It is an ambiguous phrase, inorganic, even faintly sporty. It distanced us from the painful reality of corpses, of dead, mutilated people.”

PeopleThinkingFeelsWarBodyRealityLanguagePainfulObligationLabelsPhrasesVietnamSensibilityVocabularyCorpsesVietnam WarNumbAmbiguous
Book:News from the World: Stories and Essays
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“Once in my childhood I had been eager to learn Irish; I thought to get leave to take lessons from an old Scripture-reader who spent a part of his time in the parish of Killinane, teaching such scholars as he could find to read their own language in the hope that they might turn to the only book then being printed in Irish, the Bible.”

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Book:The Kiltartan Poetry Book
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“I try to teach my students style, but always as a part of life, not as ornament. Style has to come out of communicating coherent thought, not in sticking little flowers on speeches. Style and substance and a sense of life are the things literature is composed of. One must use one's own personality in relationship to life and language, of course, and everyone has such a relationship. Some people find it, some don't find it, but it's there.”

PeopleTryingLittlesUseCoursesLiteratureLanguageTeachStyleStudentsFlowerPersonalitySpeechCommunicateSubstanceParts Of LifeOrnaments
Author:Marguerite Young
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