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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“Any attempt to speak without speaking any particular language is not more hopeless than the attempt to have a religion that shall be no religion in particular.... Every living and healthy religion has a marked idiosyncrasy. Its power consists in its special and surprising message and the bias which that revelation gives to life.”

GivingSpeakLanguageAtheismSpecialParticularHealthyMessagesPositive AtheismRevelationsHopelessSurprisingBiasIdiosyncrasies
Author:George Santayana
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“We are a free people; and now you have planted in our country the title deeds of our future slavery. You are neither god nor demon; who are you, then, to make slaves? Orou! You understand the language of these men, tell us all, as you have told me, what they have written on this sheet of metal: This country is ours. This country yours? And why? Because you have walked thereon? If a Tahitian landed one day on your shores, and scratched on one of your rocks or on the bark of your trees: This country belongs to the people of Tahiti - what would you think?”

PeopleIfsThinkingMenCountryLanguageWrittenTreeAtheismRocksOne DaySlaverySlaveDeedsPositive AtheismOur CountryTitlesDemonShoreOur FutureMetalsSheetsBarkTahiti
Author:Denis Diderot
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“We [the USA] do have a big nation's problem. We have the problem of a nation that's got two oceans, oceans on either side. People come from all across the globe and want to live here and they want to work here and they want to invest here. And that's a good thing. And they make up this country. But as a people, we [americans] are not highly skilled in languages. We're not highly skilled in knowledge of other cultures. And that's a problem.”

PeopleWantTwoCountryProblemBigsCultureLanguageNationsSidesOceanGood ThingsUsaGlobesOther Cultures
Author:Donald Rumsfeld
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“We [ with Russel Crowe] had an Arabic coach there [ in the Body of Lies] that was really helpful, because it was more so than any accent. You have to be so exact, and there's different dialects of Arabic from country to country so it was really, really difficult to tell you the truth. And one of the hardest things I've ever had to do language-wise, because it comes from the throat. It's different. And also learning about the customs and the culture and all that, so we had advisors for that sort of thing.”

DifferentCountryBodyLyingCultureLanguageDifficultWiseCoachesHardestHelpfulCustomsThroatAccentsHardest ThingDialectAdvisors
Author:Leonardo DiCaprio
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“The Bible is forbidding when you start to read it. The language is odd. The stories start and stop herkily-jerkily. The characters behave in inexplicable ways. It takes a little bit of time to get into the rhythm of the book. I found reading the first 15 chapters of Genesis very very difficult. Once I got past there, I loved reading, and found it very easy. When you get used to the Bible, it becomes thrilling to read (like any great book - I just had exactly the same experience with the Odyssey).”

WayFirstsLittlesBookCharacterStoriesPastUsedReadingFoundLanguageEasyBitsDifficultLittle BitRhythmOddBehaveChaptersThrillingGenesisGreat BookInexplicableOdyssey
Author:David Plotz
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“Crude men who feel themselves insulted tend to assess the degree of insult as high as possible, and talk about the offense in greatly exaggerated language, only so they can revel to their heart's content in the aroused feelings of hatred and revenge.”

MenFeelsHeartFeelingsLanguageDegreesHatredRevengeInsultOffenseCrudeExaggeratedInsultedHatred And Revenge
Book:Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits
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“When I was quite young I fondly imagined that all foreign languages were codes for English. I thought that "hat," say, was the real and actual name of the thing, but that people in other countries, who obstinately persisted in speaking the code of their forefathers, might use the word "ibu," say, to designate not merely the concept hat, but the English word "hat." I knew only one foreign word, "oui," and since it had three letters as did the word for which it was a code, it seemed, touchingly enough, to confirm my theory.”

PeopleRealCountryEnoughUseMightYoungThreeNamesLanguageChildhoodTheoryConceptsLettersCodeHatsOther CountriesForefathersForeign LanguageMight UseEnglish Words
Book:PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK
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“It may be safely affirmed that there neither is, nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition.... They both speak by and to the same organs; the bodies in which both of them are clothed may be said to be of the same substance, their affections are kindred, and almost identical, not necessarily differing even in degree; Poetry sheds no tears "such as Angels weep," but natural and human tears; she can boast of no celestial ichor that distinguishes her vital juices from those of prose; the same human blood circulates through the veins of them both.”

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Author:William Wordsworth
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“The great pines stand at a considerable distance from each other. Each tree grows alone, murmurs alone, thinks alone. They do notintrude upon each other. The Navajos are not much in the habit of giving or of asking help. Their language is not a communicative one, and they never attempt an interchange of personality in speech. Over their forests there is the same inexorable reserve. Each tree has its exalted power to bear.”

ThinkingGivingHelpingLanguageGrowsTreePersonalityBearsHabitSpeechAskingDistanceForestsReservesExaltedInexorableInterchange
Book:The Song of the Lark
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“Now that Stevenson is dead I can think of but one English- speaking author who is really keeping his self-respect and sticking forperfection. Of course I refer to that mighty master of language and keen student of human actions and motives, Henry James.”

ThinkingHumansI CanSelfActionCoursesLanguageStudentsMastersMotiveSelf RespectHuman ActionsEnglish Speaking
Book:A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays
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“The only way therefore to try a Piece of Wit, is to translate it into a different Language: If it bears the Test you may pronounceit true; but if it vanishes in the Experiment you may conclude it to have been a Punn.”

IfsWayTryingMayHas BeensDifferentLanguagePiecesBearsTestsWitExperimentsTranslateDifferent Languages
Book:THE WORKS OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOSEPH ADDISON, Esq; In FOUR VOLUMES.: VOLUME the SECOND
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“I speak French with timidity, and not flowingly--except when excited. When using that language I have often noticed that I have hardly ever been mistaken for a Frenchman, except, perhaps, by horses; never, I believe, by people.”

PeopleBelieveSpeakLanguageI BelieveHorseExcitedMistakenTimidityFrenchmenSpeaks French
Book:Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays, Volume 1: 1852-1890
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“Let it be signified to me through any channelthat the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, andin sixty days it will be accomplished. ...penned in the language of truth, and divested of those expressions of servility which would persuade his majesty that we are asking favors and not rights.”

StatesWould BeLanguageUnitedUnited StatesRightsExpressionRevolutionAskingPossessionFavorsAccomplishedSixtyFloridaDesirableMajestyServility
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“Language fails not because thought fails, but because no verbal symbols can do justice to the fullness and richness of thought. Ifwe are to continue talking about "data" in any other sense than as reflective distinctions, the original datum is always such a qualitative whole.”

WholeLanguageCan DoJusticeTalkingFailingOriginalsSymbolsDataDistinctionFullnessRichnessQualitative
Book:The Later Works, 1925-1953: 1929-1930
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“In prosperous times I have sometimes felt my fancy and powers of language flag, but adversity is to me at least a tonic and bracer.”

SometimesLanguageFeltAdversityFancyFlagsProsperousPower Of Language
Book:Sir Walter Scott: Collected Letters, Memoirs and Articles: Complete Autobiographical Writings, Journal & Notes, Accompanied with Extended Biographies and Reminiscences of the Author of Waverly, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, The Pirate, Old Mortality, The Guy Mannering
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“Logic, like language, is partly a free construction and partly a means of symbolizing and harnessing in expression the existing diversities of things; and whilst some languages, given a man's constitution and habits, may seem more beautiful and convenient to him than others, it is a foolish heat in a patriot to insist that only his native language is intelligible or right.”

MenMayMeanSeemsBeautifulLanguageGivenExpressionHabitDiversityLogicConstitutionFoolishHeatNativeConstructionPatriotConvenientNative Language
Author:George Santayana
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“Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work.”

LooksSaidNightNamesLanguageWindowEarsFilledLook UpEvery NightParalysisEuclidCatechismMaleficent
Book:The Dead and Other Stories: A Broadview Anthology of British Literature Edition
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“And in spite of everything, Ireland remains the brain of the Kingdom. The English, judiciously practical and ponderous, furnish the over-stuffed stomach of humanity with a perfect gadget--the water closet. The Irish, condemned to express themselves in a language not their own, have stamped on it the mark of their own genius and compete for glory with the civilized nations. This is then called English literature.”

HumanityLiteratureLanguageNationsWaterPerfectBrainGeniusGloryMarkRemainsPracticalsKingdomsSpiteCivilizedStomachIrelandClosetsGadgetsEnglish LiteratureCivilized Nations
Author:James Joyce
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