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Language Quotes

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Language Quotes

“Any attempt to speak without speaking any particular language is not more hopeless than the attempt to have a religion that shall be no religion in particular.... Every living and healthy religion has a marked idiosyncrasy. Its power consists in its special and surprising message and the bias which that revelation gives to life.”

GivingSpeakLanguageAtheismSpecialParticularHealthyMessagesPositive AtheismRevelationsHopelessSurprisingBiasIdiosyncrasies
Author:George Santayana
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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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“I speak French with timidity, and not flowingly--except when excited. When using that language I have often noticed that I have hardly ever been mistaken for a Frenchman, except, perhaps, by horses; never, I believe, by people.”

PeopleBelieveSpeakLanguageI BelieveHorseExcitedMistakenTimidityFrenchmenSpeaks French
Book:Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays, Volume 1: 1852-1890
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“Ask yourself whether our language is complete--whether it was so before the symbolism of chemistry and the notation of the infinitesimal calculus were incorporated in it; for these are, so to speak, suburbs of our language. (And how many houses or streets does it take before a town begins to be a town?) Our language can be seen as an ancient city: a maze of little streets and squares, of old and new houses, and of houses with additions from various periods; and this surrounded by a multitude of new boroughs with straight regular streets and uniform houses.”

LittlesDoeAsksHouseSpeakLanguageCitiesStreetsPeriodsTownsAncientVariousChemistrySquaresUniformsMultitudesSuburbsSymbolismMazesCalculusOld And New
Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein
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“My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them--as steps--to climb up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the whole world aright.”

WorldWayWholeUsedSpeakLanguageStepsPhilosophicalFollowingWhole WorldClimbsPropositionsLaddersUnderstand MeNonsensical
Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
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“I have issued the command, and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad, that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death's-head formation in readiness, for the present only in the East, with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

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Author:Adolf Hitler
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“It is not possible, for a poet, writing in any language, to protect himself from the tragic elements in human life.... [ellipsis in source] Illness, old age, and death--subjects as ancient as humanity--these are the subjects that the poet must speak of very nearly from the first moment that he begins to speak.”

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Author:Louise Bogan
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“Science begins with the world we have to live in, accepting its data and trying to explain its laws. From there, it moves toward the imagination: it becomes a mental construct, a model of a possible way of interpreting experience. The further it goes in this direction, the more it tends to speak the language of mathematics, which is really one of the languages of the imagination, along with literature and music. Art, on the other hand, begins with the world we construct, not with the world we see. It starts with the imagination, and then works toward ordinary experience.”

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Author:Northrop Frye
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“There are many deaf people who couldn't imagine living in a marriage without someone who doesn't speak their language. For me, I believe that hearing or deaf is fine as long as both parties are willing to communicate in each other's language. But if there's no communication, then the marriage, I believe, will be difficult if not doomed.”

PeopleIfsBelieveLongSpeakLanguageI BelieveDifficultPartyImagineWillingCommunicationFineCommunicateHearingDoomedDeafDeafnessNo Communication
Author:Marlee Matlin
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“[H]ow do I pity those who (assuming the name of friends) surround themselves with maxims importing the wisdom of doubt and suspicion, 'til they impose on themselves that very hard task of laboring through life without ever knowing a human creature to whom they can make the proper use of language and freely speak the dictates of their hearts!”

HumansHeartHardUseValuesNamesSpeakLanguageFriendshipKnowingDoubtFriendsCreaturesTasksAssumingPitySurroundSuspicionMaximsUse Of Language
Author:Sarah Fielding
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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.”

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Author:Werner Heisenberg
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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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“Language makes it possible for a child to incorporate his parents' verbal prohibitions, to make them part of himself....We don't speak of a conscience yet in the child who is just acquiring language, but we can see very clearly how language plays an indispensable role in the formation of conscience. In fact, the moral achievement of man, the whole complex of factors that go into the organization of conscience is very largely based upon language.”

MenChildrenPlayWholeFactsSpeakLanguageParentMoralRolesAchievementConscienceOrganizationComplexesFactorsIndispensableFormationProhibition
Author:Selma Fraiberg
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“Dare I speak ,to oppressed and opressor in the same voice? Dare I speak to you in a language that will move beyond the boundaries of domination- a language, that will not bind you, fence you in, or hold you? Language is also a place of struggle. The oppressed struggle in language to recover ourselves, to reconcile, to reunite, to renew. Our words are not without meaning, they are an action, a resistance. Language is also a place of struggle.”

ActionMovingSpeakLanguageVoiceStruggleDareBoundariesResistanceOppressedFenceDominationReconcileOur Words
Book:Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics
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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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“Obama sees the world in two ways: from the black perspective and from the white perspective. He was raised as a black man, whose culture he has self-consciously adopted. But he was reared largely by his white grandparents. He lived a kind of racially bipartisan experience, and he will be able to speak a language that resonates with both communities.”

MenWorldWayKindTwoSelfAbleCultureSpeakLanguageBlackCommunityWhitePerspectiveRaisedGrandparentAdoptedTwo WaysBipartisan
Author:Michael Eric Dyson
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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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“If you're a writer and you are at all inclined to speak as a Christian in some way, you realize very quickly that the conventional language is pretty much useless. It takes a long time to get past that, or it has taken me a long time. People in conventional Christianity have spoken lightly and sometimes frivolously of God for a long time. It's a word that needs to be used sparingly, in my opinion.”

PeopleIfsWayNeedsLongSometimesChristianPastUsedSpeakLanguageRealizingChristianityOpinionTakenLong TimeUselessConventional
Author:Wendell Berry
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