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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“But once an original book has been written - and no more than one or two appear in a century - men of letters imitate it, in other words, they copy it so that hundreds of thousands of books are published on exactly the same theme, with slightly different titles and modified phraseology. This should be able to be achieved by apes, who are essentially imitators, provided, of course, that they are able to make use of language.”

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Book:Planet of the Apes
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“Would I describe a preacher, I would express him simple, grave, sincere; In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain, And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste, And natural in gesture; much impress'd Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too; affectionate in look, And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men.”

MenFeelsWellsLooksMayLanguageNaturalSimpleGraceConsciousGravesDoctrineGuiltyAwfulDecentAddressesSincereAnxiousGesturesPreacherPreachingImpressSolemnFlocksMessengersAffectionateChaste
Book:The Works of William Cowper: His Life, Letters, and Poems. Now First Completed by the Introduction of Cowper's Private Correspondence
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“But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American. If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin and separated from the rest of America, then he isn't doing his part as an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. . . We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house; and we have room for but one soul loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.”

PeopleIfsMenTryingSoulFactsAmericaTurnsHouseLanguageRoomsBecomingLoyaltyDividedEnglish LanguageNationalityAllegianceCrucibleDwellersPolyglotsBoarding House
Book:Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia
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“Older boys often asked me to teach them “some bad words in your language”. At first I politely refused. My refusal merely increased their determination, so I solved the problem by teaching them phrases like 'man kharam' which means “I'm an idiot”. I told them that what I was teaching them was so nasty that they would have to promise never to repeat it to anyone. They would then spend all of recess running around yelling “I'm an idiot! I'm an idiot!”. I never told them the truth. I figured someday, somebody would”

MenFirstsMeanProblemRunningLanguageBoysTeachTeachingPromiseDeterminationIdiotPhrasesRepeatsSomedayNastyRefusalYellingRecessBad Word
Book:Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America
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“We do not realize how deeply our starting assumptions affect the way we go about looking for and interpreting the data we collect. We should recognize that nonhuman organisms need not meet every new definition of human language, tool use, mind, or consciousness in order to have versions of their own that are worthy of serious study. We have set ourselves too much apart, grasping for definitions that will distinguish man from all other life on the planet. We must rejoin the great stream of life from whence we arose and strive to see within it the seeds of all we are and all we may become.”

MenWayNeedsShouldMindHumansMayUseOrderLanguageRealizingConsciousnessStudyToo MuchPlanetsSeriousToolsStriveStartingDefinitionsWorthySeedsVersionsDataStreamsAssumptionOrganismsGraspingInterpretingHuman Language
Book:Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind
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“Who shall say that those poor peasants were not acting in the spirit we most venerate, most adore; that theirs was not the true heart language which we cannot choose but love? And what has been their reward? They have sent down their name to be the by-word of all after ages; the worst reproach of the worst men a name convertible with atheism and devil-worship.”

MenHeartHas BeensAgeSpiritNamesLanguagePoorActingAtheismWorstWorshipDevilRewardsAdorePeasantsReproachTrue HeartDevil Worship
Book:Fraser's Magazine
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“The passion for travelling is, I believe, instinctive in some natures. We have seen men persevere in their enterprises against the most formidable obstacles; and, without means or friends, and even ignorant of the languages of the various countries through which they passed, pursue their perilous journeys into remote places, until, like the knight in the Arabian tale, they succeeded in snatching a memorial from every shrine they visited.”

MenBelieveMeanCountryPassionLanguageI BelieveJourneyVariousObstaclesTalesIgnorantPursueEnterpriseMemorialKnightsPersevereFormidableShrinesArabianRemote Places
Book:A Voyage Round the World: Volume I, Including Travels in Africa, Asia, Australasia, America, etc., etc., from 1827 to 1832
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“Happy is the man who can with vigorous wing Mount to those luminous serene fields! The man whose thoughts, like larks, Take liberated flight toward the morning skies --Who hovers over life and understands without effort The language of flowers and voiceless things!”

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Book:Flowers of Evil and Other Works: A Dual-Language Book
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“The composer reveals the innermost nature of the world, and expresses the profoundest wisdom in a language that his reasoning faculty does not understand, just as a magnetic somnambulist gives information about things of which she has no conception when she is awake. Therefore in the composer, more than in any other artist, the man is entirely separate and distinct from the artist.”

MenWorldGivingDoeArtistLanguageInformationHe ManAwakeReasoningFacultyConceptionComposerMagnetic
Book:The World as Will and Representation
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“As the base rhetorician uses language to increase his own power, to produce converts to his own cause, and to create loyal followers of his own person - so the noble rhetorician uses language to wean men away from their inclination to depend on authority, to encourage them to think and speak clearly, and to teach them to be their own masters.”

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Author:Thomas Szasz
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“I was always much impressed, in reading prison memoirs of revolutionists, such as Lenin and Trotsky ... by the amount of reading they did, the languages they studied, the range of their plans for a better social order. (Or rather, for a new social order.) In the Acts of the Apostles there are constant references to the Way and the New Man.”

MenWayOrderReadingLanguageSocialPlansAmountConstantPrisonMemoirRangeImpressedApostlesSocial OrderTrotsky
Author:Dorothy Day
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“When we say 'time', I believe we mean at least two things. We mean changes. And we mean something unchangeable. We mean something that moves . but against an unmoving background. And vice versa.Animals can sense changes. But consciousness of time involves the double sense of constancy and change. Which can only be attributed to those who give expression to it. And that can only be done through language, and only man has language.The perception of time and language are inextricably bound up with one another.”

MenGivingBelieveMeanTwoDoneMovingLanguageI BelieveAnimalConsciousnessExpressionPerceptionBoundsVicesBackgroundsTwo ThingsVice VersaConstancyUnchangeable
Book:Borderliners: A Novel
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“Geography was not furthered by the achievement, scientific progress was scarcely hastened, and nothing new was discovered. Yet the names of Hillary and Tenzing went instantly into all languages as the names of heroes, partly because they really were men of heroic mold but chiefly because they represented so compellingly the spirit of their time.”

MenSpiritNamesLanguageProgressHeroAchievementHeroicGeographyMoldNothing NewScientific ProgressMt Everest
Author:Edmund Hillary
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“No one really knew the sciences except the Lord Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, by reason of his length of life and experience, as well as of his studiousness and zeal. He knew mathematics and perspective, and there was nothing which he was unable to know; and at the same time he was sufficiently acquainted with languages to be able to understand the saints and the philosophers and the wise men of antiquity but his knowledge of languages was not such as to enable him to effect translations until the latter portion of his life.”

KnowsMenWellsReasonAbleLanguageLordWiseEffectsPerspectiveMathematicsSaintPhilosopherLatterLengthPortionsTranslationsZealBishopsAntiquityLength Of Life
Author:Roger Bacon
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“Speech, originally, was the device whereby Man learned, imperfectly, to transmit the thoughts and emotions of his mind. By setting up arbitrary sounds and combinations of sounds to represent certain mental nuances, he developed a method of communication--but one which in its clumsiness and thick-thumbed inadequacy degenerated all the delicacy of the mind into gross and guttural signaling.”

MenMindCertainLanguageSoundEmotionCommunicationSpeechMethodSettingSettingsCombinationDevicesThickGrossArbitraryNuanceTransmitDelicacyInadequacyThoughts And EmotionsClumsiness
Book:Foundation Trilogy
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“God has come again and again in various Forms, has spoken again and again in different words and different languages the Same One Truth - but how many are there that live up to it? Instead of making Truth the vitalbreath of his life, man compromises by making over and over againa mechanical religion of it - a handy staff to lean on in times of adversity, a soothing balm for his conscience or a tradition to be followed.”

MenDifferentFormLanguageConscienceTraditionAdversityVariousCompromiseAgain And AgainStaffSoothingHandyDifferent LanguagesTimes Of Adversity
Author:Meher Baba
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“But all this language gotten, and augmented by Adam and his posterity, was again lost at the tower of Babel , when by the hand of God, every man was stricken for his rebellion, with an oblivion of his former language.”

MenHandsLostLanguageEvery ManFormerRebellionAdamTowersOblivionPosterityHands Of GodBabelTower Of Babel
Book:The Moral and Political Works To which is Prefixed the Autors Life, Extracted from that Said to be Written by Himself ... Illustr. by the Ed. - London 1750
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“He that is to govern a whole Nation , must read in himself, not this, or that particular man; but Mankind; which though it be hard to do, harder than to learn any Language, or Science; yet, when I shall have set down my own reading orderly, and perspicuously, the pains left another, will be only to consider, if he also find not the same in himself. For this kind of Doctrine, admitteth no other Demonstration.”

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Book:Leviathan - Revised Edition
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“Rumors and reports of man's relation with animals are the world's oldest news stories, headlined in the stars of the zodiac, posted on the walls of prehistoric caves, inscribed in the languages of Egyptian myth, Greek philosophy, Hindu religion, Christian art, our own DNA. Belonging within the circle of mankind's intimate acquaintance ... constant albeit speechless companions, they supplied energies fit to be harnessed or roasted.”

MenWorldArtPhilosophyStoriesChristianEnergyLanguageStarsAnimalMankindWallFitNewsRelationConstantMythCirclesGreekIntimateReportsCompanionBelongingCavesDnaAcquaintanceRumorEgyptianSpeechlessReligion ChristianPrehistoricZodiacNews StoriesHindu ReligionGreek PhilosophyChristian Art
Author:Lewis H. Lapham
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“Whereas, according to the declaration of that true man of the world Talleyrand, the use of language is to conceal the thoughts; this is to declare in the present instance, when I say I am not able to bear much talking, it means really, and without any mistake, or equivocation, or oblique meaning, or implication, or subterfuge, or omission, that I am not able; being at present rather weak in the head, and able to work no more.”

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Author:Michael Faraday
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“The twentieth century saw an amazing development of scholarship and criticism in the humanities, carried out by people who were more intelligent, better trained, had more languages, had a better sense of proportion, and were infinitely more accurate scholars and competent professional men than I. I had genius. No one else in the field known to me had quite that.”

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Book:Northrop Frye unbuttoned: wit and wisdom from the notebooks and diaries
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“Do we regard language as more public, more ceremonial, than thought? Just as family men condemn the profanity on the stage that they use constantly in conversation, in the same way we may look to written language as an idealization rather than a reflection of ourselves.”

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Book:States of Desire Revisited: Travels in Gay America
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“To require conformity in the appreciation of sentiments or the interpretation of language, or uniformity of thought, feeling, or action, is a fundamental error in human legislation -- a madness which would be only equaled by requiring all men to possess the same countenance, the same voice or the same stature.”

MenHumansFeelingsWould BeActionLanguageVoiceDiversityMadnessFundamentalsErrorsAppreciationInterpretationSentimentsConformityIndividualismLegislationCollectivismCountenanceStatureUniformity
Book:Equitable Commerce: A New Development of Principles for the Harmoneous Adjustment and Regulation of the Pecuniary,intellectual,and Moral Intercourse of Mankind,proposed as Elements of New Society
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