LANGUAGE QUOTES V

quotations about language

A language has very little that is arbitrary in it, very little betokening the conscious power and action of man. It owes its origin, not to the thoughts and the will of individuals, but to an instinct actuating a whole people: it expresses what is common to them all: it has sprung out of their universal wants, and lives in their hearts. But after a while in intellectual aristocracy come forward, and frame a new language of their own. The princes and lords of thought shoot forth their winged words into regions beyond the scan of the people. They require a gold coinage, in addition to the common currency.

JULIUS CHARLES HARE

Guesses at Truth

Tags: Julius Charles Hare


Evolution teaches us the original purpose of language was to ritualize men's threats and curses, his spells to compel the gods; communication came later.

GENE WOLFE

"The Death of Doctor Island", Universe 3

Tags: Gene Wolfe


Wouldn't it be wonderful to travel to a foreign country without having to worry about the nuisance of communicating in a different language?... Within a decade or so, we'll be able to communicate with one another via small earpieces with built-in microphones. No more trying to remember your high school French when checking into a hotel in Paris. Your earpiece will automatically translate "Good evening, I have a reservation" to Bon soir, j'ai une réservation -- while immediately translating the receptionist's unintelligible babble to "I am sorry, Sir, but your credit card has been declined."

DAVID ARBESÚ

"Could the language barrier actually fall within the next 10 years?", The Conversation, March 28, 2016


Language is an impure medium. Speech is public property and words are the soiled products, not of nature, but of society, which circulates and uses them for a thousand different ends.

EDWARD HIRSCH

How to Read a Poem

Tags: Edward Hirsch


Language is a living original; it is not made but grows. The growth of language repeats the growth of the plant; at first it is only root, next it puts forth a stem, then leaves, and finally blossoms.

WILLIAM SWINTON

Rambles Among Words: Their Poetry, History and Wisdom


There's no such thing as dead languages, only dormant minds.

CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON

The Shadow of the Wind

Tags: Carlos Ruiz Zafon


Speech is a rolling press that always amplifies one's emotions.

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

Madame Bovary

Tags: Gustave Flaubert


It is a silly conceit, that men without languages are often without understanding; it is apparent in all ages, that some such have been even prodigies for ability; for it is not to be believed that wisdom speaks only to her disciples in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.

THOMAS FULLER

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Thomas Fuller


All true language is incomprehensible, Like the chatter of a beggar's teeth.

ANTONIN ARTAUD

Ci-Git

Tags: Antonin Artaud


Language was invented for one reason, boys -- to woo women.

N. H. KLEINBAUM

Dead Poets Society


Language is not a wonderful natural asset; it is an artificial device that constantly misleads us and does us great harm; and the modern way of studying language is itself harmful because it enhances the reputation of language and sustains corrupt ways of thought.

AMOREY GETHIN

introduction, Language and Thought: A Rational Enquiry Into Their Nature and Relationship


It is as though the ancestors who made language and knew from what bestiality its use rescued them are saying to us: Beware of interfering with its purpose! For when language is seriously interfered with, when it is disjoined from truth, be it from mere incompetence or worse, from malice, horrors can descend again on mankind.

CHINUA ACHEBE

Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays

Tags: Chinua Achebe


To clothe low-creeping matter with high-flown language is not fine fancy but flat foolery; it rather loads than raises a wren, to fasten the feathers of an ostrich to her wings.

THOMAS FULLER

The Holy State and the Profane State

Tags: Thomas Fuller


The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

Tractacus Logico-Philosophicus

Tags: Ludwig Wittgenstein


Men are apt to overvalue the tongues, and to think they have made considerable progress in learning when they have once overcome these; yet in reality there is no internal worth in them, and men may understand a thousand languages without being the wiser.

E. D. BAKER

attributed, Day's Collacon


Language, which is the uniting bond and very medium of communion between men, is at the same time by the great variety of tongues, the means of severing and estranging nations more than anything else.

HORACE SMITH

The Tin Trumpet: Or, Heads and Tails, for the Wise and Waggish


Language is originally and essentially nothing but a system of signs or symbols, which denote real occurrences, or their echo in the human soul.

CARL JUNG

Psychology of the Unconscious

Tags: Carl Jung


A man reacheth not to excellence with one language.

R. ASCHAM

attributed, Day's Collacon


Since individuals think in the language in which they speak, thought processes are limited to words and concepts within that language. If a word for a concept doesn't exist in that language, it cannot be thought. Because language is the cornerstone of thinking and culture, as the languages around the world die out, ways of thinking become restricted.

JORDAN RYDER

"Native American Student Association to Stage Screening of Language Loss Documentary", Daily Iowan, March 29, 2016


Language is the dress of thought.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

Lives of the English Poets

Tags: Samuel Johnson