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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“The new painters do not propose, any more than did their predecessors, to be geometers. But it may be said that geometry is to the plastic arts what grammar is to the art of the writer. Today, scholars no longer limit themselves to the three dimensions of Euclid. The painters have been lead quite naturally, one might say by intuition, to preoccupy themselves with the new possibilities of spatial measurement which, in the language of the modern studios, are designated by the term fourth dimension.”

MayHas BeensArtSaidMightTodayThreeLanguageTermModernPossibilityLimitsLogicStudiosIntuitionPainterCertaintyUncertaintyReasoningDimensionsScholarFourthPlasticGrammarProposeMeasurementGeometryPredecessorsOntologyNew PossibilitiesSpatialEuclidThree Dimensions
Author:Guillaume Apollinaire
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“Music, as many people have said, is the universal language. Of course points are made which make you think about things, but ultimately it makes you feel. And that's why people remember more songs that have meant something during their life than films. They start to define periods in your life, and that's kind of the beauty of it.”

PeopleThinkingFeelsKindMadeSaidRememberFilmSongCoursesLanguagePeriodsUniversalMake You ThinkUniversal Language
Author:Scott Weiland
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“I have never said, as is sometimes believed, or even suggested that lower-class children should not learn the so-called educated norm of the Portuguese language of Brazil. What I have said is that the problems of language always involve ideological questions and, along with them, questions of power.”

ShouldChildrenSaidSometimesProblemLanguageClassSocietyEducatedNormIdeologicalBrazilPortugueseLower Class
Book:Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those who Dare Teach
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“I hope I have a few years left in my 'last days,' but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days.”

WorldWayWantYearsSaidBookLastsLeftLanguageGivenClearJudgmentBarsFaithfulLatterStraightforwardLast DayLatter Days
Author:Jeffrey R. Holland
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“Owing to the imperfection of language the offspring is termed a new animal, but it is in truth a branch or elongation of the parent; since a part of the embryon-animal is, or was, a part of the parent; and therefore in strict language it cannot be said to be entirely new at the time of its production; and therefore it may retain some of the habits of the parent-system. (1794)”

MaySaidLanguageParentAnimalEvolutionHabitProductionsBranchesImperfectionStrictOffspringOwing
Book:Zoonomia; or, The laws of organic life ...
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“When our Lord says, 'I have not spoken of Myself' (Jn. 12:49), and again, 'As the Father said to Me, so I speak' (Jn. 12:50), and 'The word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's Who sent Me' (Jn. 14:24), and in another place, 'As the Father commanded Me, even so I do' (Jn. 14:31), it is not because He lacks deliberate purpose or power of initiative, nor yet because He has to wait for the preconcerted key-note, that He employs language of this kind. His object is to make it plain that His own will is connected in indissoluble union with the Father.”

KindSaidChristianPurposeFatherSpeakLanguageWaitingLordObjectsMinesKeysUnionsNotesConnectedOrthodoxInitiativeDeliberateOur LordOrthodox Christian
Author:Saint Basil
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“It was hard for me to do the show (All-American Girl) because a lot of people didn't even understand the concept of Asian-American. I was on a morning show and the host said, "Awright, Margaret, we're changing over to an ABC affiliate! So why don't you tell our viewers in your native language that we're making that transition?" So I looked at the camera and said, "Um, they're changing over to an ABC affiliate."”

PeopleSaidHardShowsGirlLanguageMorningConceptsCamerasNativeTransitionHostViewersAsianAsian AmericanNative Language
Author:Margaret Cho
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“H. L Mencken's Dictionary of the American Language supplies a long list of slang terms for being drunk, but the Irish are no slouches, either. They're spannered, rat-arsed, cabbaged, and hammered; ruined, legless, scorched, and blottoed; or simply trolleyed or sloshed. In Kerry, you're said to be flamin'; in Waterford, you're in the horrors; and in Cavan, you've gone baloobas, a tough one to wrap your tongue around if you ARE baloobas. In Donegal, you're steamin', while the afflicted in Limerick are out of their tree.”

IfsLongSaidLanguageTermGoneTreeHorrorToughTongueListsDrunkRatsRuinedWrapsDictionarySuppliesSlangHammeredLimerickBeing DrunkAmerican Language
Author:Bill Barich
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“And there are also languages that divide nouns into much more specific genders. The African language Supyire from Mali has five genders: humans, big things, small things, collectives, and liquids. Bantu languages such as Swahili have up to ten genders, and the Australian language Ngan’gityemerri is said to have fifteen different genders, which include, among others, masculine human, feminine human, canines, non-canine animals, vegetables, drinks, and two different genders for spears (depending on size and material).”

HumansSaidTwoDifferentBigsLanguageAnimalFiveMaterialsDrinkTenSizeGenderCollectivesFeminineDividesVegetablesFifteenBig ThingsMasculineSmall ThingsAustralianLiquidSpearsCanineNounsMali
Author:Guy Deutscher
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“It seems to me obvious that infants and many animals that do not in any ordinary sense have a language or perform speech acts nonetheless have Intentional states. Only someone in the grip of a philosophical theory would deny that small babies can literally be said to want milk and that dogs want to be let out or believe that their master is at the door.”

WantBelieveSaidStatesSeemsLanguageAnimalDoorsDogMastersTheoryBabySpeechOrdinaryPhilosophicalObviousDenyMilkInfant
Author:John Searle
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“I said that he was my superior in observation and deduction. If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from an armchair, my brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived. But he has no ambition and no energy. He will not even go out of his way to verify his own solutions, and would rather be considered wrong than take the trouble to prove himself right.”

IfsWayArtSaidBookWould BeEnergyLanguageTroubleBrotherProveAmbitionSolutionsCriminalsSuperiorsObservationAgentsMy BrotherReasoningDetectivesDeductionsVerifyArmchairsNo Energy
Book:The Best of Sherlock Holmes
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“Everybody knows that really intimate conversation is only possible between two or three. As soon as there are six or seven, collective language begins to dominate. That is why it is a complete misinterpretation to apply to the Church the words 'Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' Christ did not say two hundred, or fifty, or ten. He said two or three.”

KnowsSaidTwoTogetherThreeNamesLanguageChristChurchGroupsTenConversationSixHundredSevenIntimateFiftyCollectivesMidstMisinterpretationIntimate Conversation
Book:Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)
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“the way in which a faith community shapes language about God implicity represents what it takes to be the highest good, the profoundest truth, the most appealing beauty. ... While officially it is rightly and consistently said that God is spirit and so beyond identification with either male or female sex, yet the daily language of preaching, worship, catechesis, and instruction conveys a different message: God is male, or at least more like a man than a woman, or at least more fittingly addressed as male than as female.”

MenWaySaidDifferentGodSpiritLanguageSexCommunityShapesWorshipMessagesHighestFemaleMalesInstructionConsistentlyPreachingIdentificationFaith Community
Author:Elizabeth A. Johnson
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“One demands two things of a poem. Firstly, it must be a well-made verbal object that does honor to the language in which it is written. Secondly, it must say something significant about a reality common to us all, but perceived from a unique perspective. What the poet says has never been said before, but, once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves.”

WellsDoeMadeSaidTwoRealityLanguageCommonWrittenObjectsPoetPerspectiveReaderHonorDemandUniqueSignificantTwo ThingsValidityPoetry By Famous PoetsUnique Perspective
Author:W. H. Auden
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“The omission of an expected conjunction is called an asyndeton. Caesar is supposed to have said about Gaul: I came, I saw, I conquered. Lincoln concluded the Gettysburg Address, That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.Caesar seems to have omitted his conjunction to speed things up; he is emphasizing how quickly the conquest of a place follows from its being sighted by a great and ambitious general. Lincoln's omission is more subtle”

PeopleSaidSeemsGovernmentEarthLanguageSawsSpeedExpectedAddressesSubtleAmbitiousConquestOmissionConjunctionsGettysburgGettysburg Address
Book:Figures of Speech: 60 Ways To Turn A Phrase
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“I remember one English teacher in the eighth grade, Florence Schrack, whose husband also taught at the high school. I thought what she said made sense, and she parsed sentences on the blackboard and gave me, I'd like to think, some sense of English grammar and that there is a grammar, that those commas serve a purpose and that a sentence has a logic, that you can break it down. I've tried not to forget those lessons, and to treat the English language with respect as a kind of intricate tool.”

ThinkingKindMadeSaidSchoolRememberPurposeLanguageForgetBreakTeacherTaughtLessonsHusbandHigh SchoolToolsLogicTreatsSentencesGradesGrammarEnglish LanguageIntricateFlorenceEnglish TeacherEighth GradeBlackboardEnglish Grammar
Author:John Updike
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“It was amusement enough to be with a group of fearless and talkative girls, who said new things in a new language, who were ignorant of tradition and unimpressed by distinctions of rank; but it was soon clear that their young hostesses must be treated with the same respect, if not with the same ceremony as English girls of good family.”

IfsSaidEnoughYoungGirlLanguageClearGroupsTraditionIgnorantTreatedFearlessDistinctionNew ThingsCeremonyAmusementTalkativeHostessesGood Family
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)
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“Evolution explains our biological evolution, but human beings are very unique creatures. As the Dobzhansky said, all animals are unique; humans are the uniquest. And that uniqueness of being human, language, art, culture, our dependency on culture for survival, comes from the combination of traditional biological evolution.”

HumansArtSaidCultureLanguageHuman BeingsAnimalEvolutionCreaturesSurvivalUniqueTraditionalCombinationUniquenessBeing HumanDependencyHuman LanguageBiological EvolutionLanguage Arts
Author:Donald Johanson
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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.”

HumansMaySaidBodyPoetrySpeakLanguageNaturalDifferencesBloodTearsPoetEssentialsDegreesAngelAffectionSubstanceProseOrgansShedCompositionVeinsBoastJuiceIdenticalCelestialKindred
Author:William Wordsworth
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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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“The way in which the photograph records experience is also different from the way of language. Language makes sense only when it is presented as a sequence of propositions. Meaning is distorted when a word or sentence is, as we say, taken out of context; when a reader or listener is deprived of what was said before, and after. But there is no such thing as a photograph taken out of context, for a photograph does not require one. In fact, the point of photography is to isolate images from context, so as to make them visible in a different way.”

WayDoeSaidDifferentFactsLanguageTakenRecordsReaderPhotographyPhotographSentencesMake SenseDifferent WaysVisibleListenersPropositionsSequenceDeprivedOf ContextBefore And After
Book:Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
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“My books have sold largely in England, have been translated into many languages, and passed through several editions in foreign countries. I have heard it said that the success of a work abroad is the best test of its enduring value. I doubt whether this is at all trustworthy; but judged by this standard my name ought to last for a few years.”

YearsHas BeensSaidBookCountryLastsValuesNamesLanguageDoubtHeardOughtStandardsTestsEnglandEndureJudgedAutobiographyTrustworthyForeign Countries
Book:The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 29:
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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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“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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“In one of the most brilliant papers in the English language Hume made it clear that what we speak of as 'causality' is nothing more than the phenomenon of repetition. When we mix sulphur with saltpeter and charcoal we always get gunpowder. This is true of every event subsumed by a causal law in other words, everything which can be called scientific knowledge. "It is custom which rules ," Hume said, and in that one sentence undermined both science and philosophy .”

MadeSaidPhilosophyLawSpeakLanguageClearEventsPaperSentencesBrilliantMade ItPhenomenonCustomsRepetitionPapersEnglish LanguageScientific KnowledgeCausalityOne SentenceGunpowderCharcoalHumeScience And Philosophy
Author:Philip K. Dick
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“The semanticists are exactly wrong in regarding language as an obstruction or series of pitfalls. Language, on the contrary, appears as a great storehouse of universal memory, or it may be said to serve as a net, not imprisoning us but supporting us and aiding us to get at a meaning beyond present meaning through the very fact that it embodies others' experiences.”

MaySaidFactsLanguageMemoriesUniversalSeriesContraryPitfallsObstruction
Book:Ideas Have Consequences
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“It's fun when the writers start writing jokes to you, but also it's fun when the writers will come to you and say 'Hey, listen, we're working on this story and we need to know if you speak any foreign languages.' And I said 'No, I don't. I speak a little Spanish, but I can learn a foreign language.' And they go 'Okay, do you think you can learn Portuguese?' And I go 'Yeah, whatever it takes. If it's funny, I'll do it.' So of course I start looking online and learning Portuguese, and as it turns out, I get the script and it's now Serbian.”

IfsThinkingKnowsNeedsWritingLittlesSaidI CanStoriesTurnsCoursesSpeakLanguageFunJokesOkayYeahScriptsHeyOnlineWhatever It TakesForeign LanguagePortuguese
Author:David Alan Basche
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“I studied piano from the age of three. My grandmother taught piano. I stayed at her house during the day while my parents worked. I obviously wanted to learn to play. And so she asked if she could teach me, and my mother said don't you think she's too young. My grandmother apparently said no. So I could read music before I could read, and I really don't remember learning to read music. So for me it's like a native language. When I look at a sheet of music, it just makes sense.”

IfsThinkingLooksSaidPlayAgeWantedRememberYoungMotherThreeHouseLanguageParentTeachTaughtMusic IsMake SensePianoNativeGrandmotherSheetsMy GrandmotherLearning To ReadNative Language
Author:Condoleezza Rice
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“MY ACT IS 'NOTHING BUT COMEDY. I TALK SOUTHERN BECAUSE I PICKED IT UP WHEN I MOVED TO THE SOUTH. IM NOT TRYING TO MAKE ANY SOCIAL POLITICAL POINT, NOR AM I TRYING TO MAKE FUN OF REDNECKS. I GREW UP A COUNTRY KID AND WILL ALWAYS BE ONE. I GREW UP WITH PEOPLE THAT SAID CERTAIN THINGS FUNNY AND I PREFORM USING THE SAME LANGUAGE BECAUSE I FIND IT HYSTERICLE. THATS IT. ITS A COMEDY SHOW THAT IS FUNNY AND THATS IT.”

PeopleTryingSaidCountryShowsKidsPoliticalCertainLanguageFunSocialComedyGrewGrew UpMovedSouthSouthernRedneckComedy Shows
Author:Larry the Cable Guy
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