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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“To write about history or language is supposed to be within the reach of every man. To write about natural science is allowed to be within the reach only of those who have mastered the subjects on which they write.”

MenWritingLanguageNaturalSubjectsEvery ManSupposed To BeNatural Science
Book:The Methods of Historical Study: Eight Lectures Read in the University of Oxford In...1884, with the Inaugural Lecture on The Office of the Historical Professor
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“Some have said that the thesis [of indeterminacy] is a consequence of my behaviorism. Some have said that it is a reductio ad absurdum of my behaviorism. I disagree with this second point, but I agree with the first. I hold further that the behaviorism approach is mandatory. In psychology one may or may not be a behaviorist, but in linguistics one has no choice.”

FirstsMaySaidChoicesLanguagePsychologyApproachConsequenceAgreeDisagreeAdsLinguisticsThesisBehaviorism
Book:Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist: And Other Essays
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“English general and singular terms, identity, quantification, and the whole bag of ontological tricks may be correlated with elements of the native language in any of various mutually incompatible ways, each compatible with all possible linguistic data, and none preferable to another save as favored by a rationalization of the native language that is simple and natural to us.”

WayMayWholeLanguageTermNaturalSimpleIdentityElementsVariousTricksDataNativeBagsCompatibleNative Language
Book:Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine
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“The strategy of semantic ascent is that it carries the discussion into a domain where both parties are better agreed on the objects (viz., words) and on the main terms connecting them. Words, or their inscriptions, unlike points, miles, classes and the rest, are tangible objects of the size so popular in the marketplace, where men of unlike conceptual schemes communicate at their best. The strategy is one of ascending to a common part of two fundamentally disparate conceptual schemes, the better to discuss the disparate foundations. No wonder it helps in philosophy.”

MenTwoPhilosophyHelpingLanguageTermPartyCommonWonderClassObjectsPhilosophicalFoundationStrategySizeCommunicateMilesDiscussionCarrieSchemesConnectingDomainMarketplaceTangibleAscentInscriptionsAscending
Author:Willard Van Orman Quine
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“Our goal as a parent is to give life to our children's learning--to instruct, to teach, to help them develop self-discipline--an ordering of the self from the inside, not imposition from the outside. Any technique that does not give life to a child's learning and leave a child's dignity intact cannot be called discipline--it is punishment, no matter what language it is clothed in.”

GivingChildrenDoeSelfMatterHelpingLanguageParentGoalTeachDisciplineDignityOur ChildrenNo Matter WhatTechniquePunishmentSelf DisciplineImposition
Author:Barbara Coloroso
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“Reading Tomato Red-the first Daniel Woodrell novel I came upon-was a transformative experience. It expanded my sense of the possibilities not only of crime fiction, but of fiction itself-of language, of storytelling. Time and again, his work just dazzles and humbles me. God bless Busted Flush for these glorious reissues. It's a service to readers everywhere, and a great gift.”

FirstsReadingLanguageFictionNovelCrimePossibilityReaderRedStorytellingGloriousBlessGod BlessCrime FictionTomatoesGreat GiftsDazzleBusted
Author:Megan Abbott
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“Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class. At a time when I had not yet grasped the significance of the fact that in my house English was a second language, or that I wore dresses while my brother wore pants, I knew--and I knew it was important to know--that Papa worked hard all day long.”

KnowsLongImportantHardFactsGirlHouseLanguageWorkClassBrotherMembersDressesMy BrotherSignificancePantsWorking ClassPapa
Book:The romance of American Communism
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“My friend had a brilliant idea. This impressed me. It reflected an immense deal of credit on his brain. But when he expressed it,it lost all value, and enjoyed but a commonplace status. My friend blamed this devaluation on the language. "I hate English," he said. So he studied another language. He mastered it so perfectly that there was no room left in his brain for a brilliant idea. Now he has a grudge against words. He refuses to use them. He prefers to shrug or grunt. A new crop of ideas is growing. They show promise of future refinement.”

SaidIdeasUseShowsValuesHateLostLeftLanguageRoomsDealsBrainGrowingPromiseMy FriendsI HateRefuseCreditBrilliantEnjoyedImmenseImpressedCropsCommonplaceGrudgeRefinementBrilliant IdeasGrunt
Author:Marvin L. Cohen
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“The Iranian people were converted to Islam not very much longer after the conquest of the Arab world by Islam, but they refused to adopt the Arabic language, and it's a great point of pride to them that Persian culture and the Persian language and Persian literature survived the conversion to Islam. And the conversion to Islam also was for most of them not the Sunni majority form, but the Shia one. So there's a great discrepancy between Iranian society and many other of what we think of as Arab Muslim States and systems.”

PeopleThinkingWorldStatesFormCultureLiteratureLanguagePrideMajorityIslamConversionSurvivedConquestIranianPersianArab WorldDiscrepanciesShiaDiscrepancies BetweenArabic Language
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“Beauty is undefinable in language. It's something that you see when you see it, or you feel when you feel it, or you hear when you hear it. It usually encompasses all five of the senses. It can't exist without it being a somehow sensorial experience. But, I don't think it's quantifiable. Nothing is really quantifiable. Nothing is certain in love and friendship. We all try to understand these things.”

ThinkingFeelsTryingCertainLanguageFiveSensesLove And Friendship
Author:Colin Farrell
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“For me, digital is just another avenue. It doesn't mean that it has to be poor quality or poor content. But, you still run into the same struggles. You can't have full-on language, violence or sexual situations. You can't run rampant with the fact that it's digital. You can't do anything you want. You still have a responsibility to tell a story first, and show what the character is going through first, and then maybe you have a little bit of lee-way to show a more real side of life.”

WayWantFirstsMeanLittlesStillsRealCharacterFactsStoriesShowsRunningLanguageBitsSidesPoorQualityResponsibilitySituationStruggleViolenceLittle BitDigitalAvenuesPoor Quality
Author:Milo Ventimiglia
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“Most of our life is miscommunication, and when you add a language barrier to it, it just becomes total mayhem and confusion... It just adds to it with all of the cultural differences. It could be an American family meeting another American family and you could still have a total clash. With family, it's like visiting another planet.”

StillsLife IsLanguageDifferencesOur LivesPlanetsAddMeetingsConfusionBarriersClashVisitingCultural DifferencesAmerican FamilyMayhemMiscommunicationLanguage Barriers
Author:Julie Delpy
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“Certain issues in philosophy of science (having to do with observation and the definition of a theory's empirical import) had beenmisconstrued as issues in philosophy of logic and of language. With respect to modality, I hold the exact opposite: important philosophical problems concerning language have been misconstrued as relating to the content of science and the nature of the world. This is not at all new, but is the traditional nominalist line.”

WorldImportantPhilosophyProblemScienceLanguageNatureLogicPhilosophicalObservationPhilosophy Of Science
Author:Bas van Fraassen
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“Imagine an American Hans Christian Andersen, conceive of the Brothers Grimm living in Missouri, and you will approximate Howard Schwartz, a fable-maker and fable-gatherer seduced by the uncanny and the unearthly. In Lilith's Cave, he once again reaches into a magical cornucopia of folklore and fantasy and spreads before us, in enchanting language, the marvels and shocks of dybbuks, ghosts, demons, spirits, and wizards.”

ChristianSpiritLanguageFantasyImagineBrotherSpreadGhostDemonShockMakersCavesWizardsFablesFolkloreUncannyEnchantingMissouriLilithGrimmBrothers Grimm
Author:Cynthia Ozick
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“Every colonized people-in other words, every people in whose soul an inferiority complex has been created by the death and burial of its local cultural originality-finds itself face to face with the language of the civilizing nation; that is, with the culture of the mother country. The colonized is elevated above his jungle status in proportion to his adoption of the mother country's cultural standards.”

PeopleHas BeensSoulCountryFacesMotherCultureLanguageNationsStandardsComplexesLocalsProportionOriginalityAdoptionJungleFace To FaceInferiorityBurialInferiority ComplexMother Country
Book:Black Skin, White Masks
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“All my desires are born of my dreams. And I have proven my love with words. To what fantastic creatures have I entrusted myself, in what dolorous and ravishing world has my imagination enclosed me? I am sure of having been loved in the most mysterious of domains, my own. The language of my love does not belong to human language, my human body does not touch the flesh of my love. My amorous imagination has always been constant and high enough so that nothing could attempt to convince me of error.”

WorldHumansDoeEnoughDreamBodyDesireLanguageBornImaginationMy OwnCreaturesConstantErrorsFleshMysteriousFantasticConvinceProvenDomainMy ImaginationHuman BodyHuman LanguageAmorous
Author:Paul Eluard
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“This immediate dependence of language upon nature, this conversion of an outward phenomenon into a type of somewhat in human life,never loses its power to affect us. It is this which gives that piquancy to the conversation of a strong-natured farmer or backwoodsman, which all men relish.”

MenGivingHumansLanguageStrongLosesTypeConversationConversionHuman LifePhenomenonFarmersDependenceRelish
Book:The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is made up of images or tropes, which now, in their secondary use, have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin.”

LongHas BeensMadeUseEarthLanguageMassInfiniteBrilliantPoeticContinentsShellsFossilsTropesLimestone
Book:Essays and Lectures
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“I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of today. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.”

WayMadeBookTodayLyingLanguageBehindsEducationPovertyKnowledgeFieldsCollegeSpeechExperienceCopiesSpeakersYardsGrammarSplendorMasonryTilesQuarry
Book:Essays and English Traits by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“The physicist may be satisfied when he has the mathematical scheme and knows how to use for the interpretation of the experiments. But he has to speak about his results also to non-physicists who will not be satisfied unless some explanation is given in plain language. Even for the physicist the description in plain language will be the criterion of the degree of understanding that has been reached.”

KnowsMayHas BeensPhilosophyUseSpeakLanguageGivenUnderstandingResultsKnow HowDegreesPhysicsExperimentsSatisfiedMathematicalExplanationDescriptionInterpretationSchemesPhysicistCriteriaPlain Language
Author:Werner Heisenberg
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“Peter Conners stunning prose poems are packed with keen sensitivity, dreaminess, and wit. I love his time travels, the vibrant layering of image and detail. Try taking walks as you are reading this book- the dazzle of landscapes, inner and outer, feel replenished and rich. This is language and vision I want to come home to again and again.”

WantFeelsTryingBookHomeReadingLanguageWalksVisionRichDetailsWitLandscapeProseComing HomePeterTime TravelAgain And AgainSensitivityStunningDazzle
Author:Naomi Shihab Nye
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