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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“Make no mistake about it: the labeling of someone's language as 'sexist' involves a political judgment and implies the desirability of a particular sociological doctrine. One may be in favor of that doctrine (as I believe I am) but it is quite another matter to force writers by edicts and censorship into accepting it.”

BelieveMayMatterPoliticalLanguageForceI BelieveMistakeAcceptingParticularSpeechJudgmentFavorsDoctrineCensorshipSexistLabelingSociologicalDesirability
Author:Neil Postman
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“If children had teachers for judgment and eloquence just as they have for languages, if their memory was exercised less than their energy or their natural genius, if instead of deadening their vivacity of mind we tried to elevate the free scope and impulse of their souls, what might not result from a fine disposition? As it is, we forget that courage, or love of truth and glory are the virtues that matter most in youth; and our one endeavour is to subdue our children's spirits, in order to teach them that dependence and suppleness are the first laws of success in life.”

IfsMindFirstsChildrenSoulMatterMightLawSpiritOrderEnergyLanguageNaturalMemoriesForgetResultsTeachVirtueTeacherYouthFineGeniusJudgmentGloryOur ChildrenImpulseSuccess In LifeDependenceDispositionScopeEloquenceEndeavourVivacity
Author:Luc de Clapiers
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“When you choose a language, youre also choosing a community. The programmers youll be able to hire to work on a Java project wont be as smart as the ones you could get to work on a project written in Python. And the quality of your hackers probably matters more than the language you choose. Though, frankly, the fact that good hackers prefer Python to Java should tell you something about the relative merits of those languages.”

ShouldMatterFactsAbleLanguageCommunityQualityWrittenProjectsSmartMeritRelativeYou ChooseProgrammersHackersJavaPython
Author:Philip Greenspun
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“The seriousness or otherwise of the subject matter is often irrelevent to the question of whether a book is any good. F Scott Fitzgerald wrote a great and beautiful novel which mainly involved shallow people going to parties in a rich guy's house. By contrast, all sorts of terrible books are published every month about men slaughtering people for no reason - a serious matter which, in itself, does not make the author worthy of serious consideration.”

PeopleMenDoeBookMatterReasonBeautifulGuyHouseLanguagePartyNovelRichSubjectsSeriousMonthsInvolvedTerribleWorthyConsiderationNo ReasonContrastShallowSeriousnessSubject MatterScott Fitzgerald
Author:Declan Lynch
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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 matters because whoever controls the words controls the conversation, because whoever controls the conversation controls its outcome, because whoever frames the debate has already won it, because telling the truth has become harder and harder to achieve in an America drowning in Orwellian Newspeak.”

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Book:Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life
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“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.”

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Book:The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s
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“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.”

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Author:Laurie Lee
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“In language at once stark and delicate, Suki Kim shatters the polemic of North and South Korea. She couples an investigative reporter's fierce desire to strip away the fiction of the Hermit Kingdom with an immigrant's insatiable hunger for an emotional home, no matter how troubled and no matter how impossible.”

MatterHomeDesireLanguageFictionImpossibleEmotionalCoupleSouthHungerKingdomsImmigrantsDelicateFierceReportersKoreaStarksInsatiableKimHermitsSouth KoreaNorth And SouthPolemicsInsatiable Hunger
Author:Monique Truong
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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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“Interesting, isn't it, that even though more than two and a half decades have passed since the sexual revolution brought women a new measure of sexual freedom, there's still no word in the language that doesn't reek with pejorative connotation to describe a woman who has sex freely. Since language frames thought and sets its limits, this is not a trivial matter. For without a word that describes without condemning, it's hard to think about it neutrally as well. When we say the words 'promiscuous woman,' therefore, it's a statement about her character, not just her sexual behavior.”

ThinkingWellsStillsTwoMatterHardCharacterLanguageSexWomenInterestingHalfRevolutionLimitsBehaviorDecadesStatementsCondemningConnotationPromiscuousSexual Revolution
Author:Lillian B. Rubin
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“That so many writers have been prepared to accept a kind of martyrdom is the best tribute that flesh can pay to the living spirit of man as expressed in his literature. One cannot doubt that the martyrdom will continue to be gladly embraced. To some of us, the wresting of beauty out of language is the only thing in the world that matters.”

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Author:Anthony Burgess
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