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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“In America, racism exists but racists are all gone. Racists belong to the past. Racists are the thin-lipped mean white people in the movies about the civil rights era. Here's the thing: the manifestation of racism has changed but the language has not. So if you haven't lynched somebody then you can't be called a racist. If you're not a bloodsucking monster, then you can't be called a racist. Somebody has to be able to say that racists are not monsters.”

PeopleIfsMeanAbleAmericaPastLanguageWhiteGoneRightsHavensChangedRacismMonstersCivil RightsErasManifestationRacist
Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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“NVC is language, thoughts, communication skills and means of influence that serve my desire to do three things: 1) to liberate myself from cultural learning that is in conflict with how I want to live my life. 2) to empower myself to connect with myself and others in a way that makes compassionate giving natural. 3) to empower myself to create structures that support compassionate giving.”

WayWantGivingMeanDesireThreeLanguageNaturalSupportInfluenceCommunicationSkillsConflictStructureEmpoweringCommunication SkillsCompassionateLiving My LifeThree ThingsNonviolent Communication
Author:Marshall B. Rosenberg
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“Not to Learn Irish is to miss the opportunity of understanding what life in this country has meant and could mean in a better future. It is to cut oneself off from ways of being at home. If we regard self-understanding, mutual understanding, imaginative enhancement, cultural diversity and a tolerant political atmosphereas a desirable attainments, we should remember that a knowledge of the Irish language is an essential element in their realisation.”

IfsWayShouldMeanSelfCountryHomeRememberPoliticalOpportunityLanguageUnderstandingCuttingMissingEssentialsElementsDiversityRegardOneselfMutualDesirableImaginativeAttainmentRealisationBetter FutureCultural DiversitySelf UnderstandingEnhancementMutual Understanding
Author:Seamus Heaney
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“In my early teens, I read every bound volume of the magazine Punch. Every writer of any distinction in the English language, and I mean including America and England, at some time wrote for Punch. Jerome K. Jerome, who wrote Three Men In A Boat, I loved. I was very impressed when I read a piece by Mark Twain in Punch, and realized that despite the fact that they were on different continents, Jerome K. Jerome and Mark Twain had the same kind of laconic, laid-back, "The human race is damn stupid, but quite interesting" attitude. They were almost talking with the same voice.”

MenHumansKindMeanDifferentFactsAmericaThreeLanguageVoiceInterestingRaceAttitudeTalkingPiecesStupidMarkEnglandBoundsIncludingDespiteBoatMagazinesDamnHuman RaceDistinctionTeensContinentsVolumeImpressedEnglish LanguageLaid BackLaconic
Author:Terry Pratchett
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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.”

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Author:George Santayana
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“Denotation by means of sounds and markings is a remarkable abstraction. Three letters designate God for me; several lines a million things. How easy becomes the manipulation of the universe here, how evident the concentration of the intellectual world! Language is the dynamics of the spiritual realm. One word of command moves armies; the word liberty entire nations.”

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Author:Novalis
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“Sexuality is primarily a means of communicating with other people, a way of talking to them, of expressing our feelings about ourselves and them. It is essentially a language, a body language, in which one can express gentleness and affection, anger and resentment, superiority and dependence far more succinctly than would be possible verbally, where expressions are unavoidably abstract and often clumsy.”

PeopleWayMeanFeelingsBodyWould BeLanguageSexTalkingExpressionAffectionCommunicateSexualityAbstractResentmentSuperiorityDependenceGentlenessClumsyBody LanguageAnger And ResentmentWay Of TalkingCommunicating With Others
Book:From Hegel to Existentialism
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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.”

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Author:Milo Ventimiglia
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“It by no means follows, that because two men utter the same words, they have precisely the same idea which they mean to express: language is inadequate to the variety of ideas which are conceived by different minds, and which, could they be expressed, would produce a new variety of characteristic differences between man and man.”

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Author:Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke
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“In recognizing that words have power to define and to compel, the semanticists are actually testifying to the philosophic quality of language which is the source of their vexation. In an attempt to get rid of that quality, they are looking for some neutral means which will be a nonconductor of the current called "emotion" and its concomitant of evaluation.”

MeanLanguageEmotionQualitySourceCurrentsRecognizingEvaluationPhilosophicVexationTestifying
Book:Ideas Have Consequences: Expanded Edition
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“Beyond the formative effects of reading on the individuals composing society, the fact that they have read the same books gives them experiences and ideas in common. These constitute a kind of shorthand of ideas which helps make communication quicker and more efficient. That is what we mean when we say figuratively of another person, We speak the same language.”

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Author:Charles Scribner IV
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“You travel the world, you go see different things. I like to see Shakespeare plays, so I'll go - I mean, even if it's in a different language. I don't care, I just like Shakespeare, you know. I've seen Othello and Hamlet and Merchant of Venice over the years, and some versions are better than others. Way better. It's like hearing a bad version of a song. But then somewhere else, somebody has a great version.”

IfsKnowsWorldWayYearsMeanDifferentPlayCareSongLanguageDon't CareHearingVersionsI Don't CareDifferent ThingsSomewhere ElseVeniceMerchantsTravel The WorldDifferent LanguagesMerchant Of VeniceShakespeare Play
Author:Bob Dylan
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“Genitive is a funny word because it means "from," but it also is the gender in European languages for objects: the masculine, feminine, and neuter. So if you have a genitive present, there's room for everybody to fit in. I just did a project in Vienna about rock, paper, scissor; you change the gender and it simply changes the whole thing. Rock is no longer a male. It doesn't function the same way.”

IfsWayMeanWholeLanguageRoomsRocksObjectsFitPaperProjectsFunctionMalesGenderFeminineMasculineVienna
Author:Lawrence Weiner
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