Quotes About Language

That is what literature offers - a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place.

Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.

Man's first language, the most universal, the most energetic and the only language he needed before it was necessary to persuade men assembled together, is the cry of nature.

ni acerca de un libro si es útil, sino si está bien escrito. Las

Wise men, if they try to speak their language to the common herd instead of its own, cannot possibly make themselves understood.

LinguÈ™irea, sau mai bine zis îng?duinÈ›a, nu e totdeauna un p?cat, ea e de cele mai multe ori o virtute, îndeosebi la tineri. Bun?tatea cu care un om ne trateaz? ne leag? de el; nu-i cedezi ca s? profiÈ›i de el, ci ca s? nu-l mâhneÈ™ti, ca s? nu-i pl?teÈ™ti binele cu r?u.

on ne connaît d'où est un homme qu'après qu'il a parlé.

I instinctively decided that I would prove that I wasn't different, that it should not be odd to hear me speaking English. From that day forward I lived with this double impulse:the urge to disappear and the desperate desire to be accepted

At the same time, Dad was working on a book arguing the case for phonetic spelling. He called it 'A Ghoti out of Water.' Ghoti, he liked to point out, could be pronounced like fish. The gh had the f sound in enough, the o had the short i sound in women, and ti had the sh sound in nation.

The inconsistent spelling of words in the English language also vexed Dad to no end. Digraphs such as "sh" and "ph" infuriated him, and silent letters made him grieve. If words were simply spelled the way they were pronounced, he argued, pretty much anyone who learned the alphabet could read, and that would virtually wipe out illiteracy

At the same time, Dad was working on a book arguing the case for phonetic spelling. He called it A Ghoti out of Water. "Ghoti," he liked to point out, could be pronounced like "fish." The "gh" had the "f" sound in "enough," the "o" had the short "i" sound in "women," and "ti" had the "sh" sound in "nation." Dad

Snot locker was the funniest name I'd ever heard for a nose.

Through the lack of attaching myself to words, my thoughts remain nebulous most of the time. They sketch vague, pleasant shapes and then are swallowed up; I forget them almost immediately.

The aim of language...is to communicate...to impart to others the results one has obtained...As I talk, I reveal the situation...I reveal it to myself and to others in order to change it.

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

Most of the time, because of their failure to fasten on to words, my thoughts remain misty and nebulous. They assume vague, amusing shapes and are then swallowed up: I promptly forget them.

Las palabras se habían desvanecido, y con ellas la significación de las cosas, sus modos de empleo, las débiles marcas que los hombres han trazado en su superficie. Estaba sentado, un poco encorvado, cabizbajo, solo frente a aquella masa negra y nudosa, enteramente bruta y que me daba miedo. Y entonces tuve esa iluminación.

Everything looks so much alike that you wonder how people got the idea of inventing names, to make distinctions.

Chitchat debases a language.

Zaten sözcüklerden gayr? ne var ki...

A maioria das vezes, por não se ligarem a palavras, meus pensamentos permanecem nebulosos. Desenham formas vagas e agradáveis, submergem: esqueço-os imediatamente.

Cand albii vorbesc intre ei fara sa se cunoasca, inseamna ca pe un negru il pandeste moartea.

The first thing I have to do to erase my French accent is think that it is actually possible, whereas for the moment, I think it's not. I have a lot of work.

Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.