Quotes About Language

The fall of humanity was the fall from the actual to the symbolic. Language abstracts us from the real world; keeping us from direct, intuitive perception. Words, like the ego, are merely guides. Don't mistake them for the real thing. Pull aside the filthy curtains of the social. Language makes an enigma of simple existence; it obscures the true nature of reality and of your self.

But sense or nonsense, that which motivates the plane of language cannot be resisted any more than that which motivates the plane of life.

I always think there is a mystical understanding between the moon and the street, like between two sisters who have grown old together and no longer need any language to communicate with each other.

apám elismer?en mondja, hogy "a Victor Hugó nagyon jó író", fontoskodva kioktatom: Apa rosszul mondja a nevét. Ügónak ejtik. Leszarom, hogy ejtik, mondja apám rezzenéstelenül. Minden nevet úgy kell ejteni, ahogy le van írva. A többi csak felvágás.

I am fond of lovely old words like 'locomotive'.

That's not true, not grammar, and it doesn't even rhyme properly,' said Snufkin, and the subject was dropped.

Jostain syystä en ole koskaan tullut toimeen hämähäkkien kanssa, jos ne ovat niin pieniä, ettei niiden kanssa voi puhua.

That's strange, Grandmother thought. I can't describe things any more. I can't find the words, or maybe it's just that I'm not trying hard enough. It was such a long time ago. No one here was even born. And unless I tell it because I want to, it's as if it never happened; it gets closed off and then it's lost.

Pappan tystnade och började bekymrad bläddra i memoarerna. Tycker ni jag har använt för ovanliga ord? frågade han. Det gör nog inget, sa Mumintrollet. Det var ju för så länge sen och man kan nästan gissa vad du menar.

Language is the only leverage for changing the context of the world around you. This is because people apprehend and construct reality through the way they speak and listen.

Is it strange to say love is a language Few practice, but all, or near all speak?

A poem can lie.)

BILL: I have not forsook my responsibilities!- BARBARA: It's "forsaken," big shot! BILL: Actually, "forsook" is also an acceptable usage!- BARBARA: Oh, "forsook" you and the horse you rose in on!

Mom" didn't feel quite right , Reynie decided. Why not use the Tamil word? He'd heard her refer to her own mother as "Amma," but whether this meant "mom" or "mother," he wasn't sure. Reynie felt a flutter of happy anticipation.

about parataxis and hypotaxis (they either had something

The fact that Sticky had briefly had a girlfriend, for instance, until she broke up with him for remarking upon her pulchritude. ("She didn't believe me when I told her it meant 'beauty,'" Sticky said.

And please don't call me that." I didn't call you 'that', I called you George Washington.

That's bollocks,' said Owen's voice over the loudspeakers. 'That a medical term?' asked Jack. 'It is when I use it.

Poetry says the things that I can't say. I read a lot, but I never write it.

Thought is made in the mouth.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make.

Some so speak in exaggerations and superlatives that we need to make a large discount from their statements before we can come at their real meaning.

What is with you and faces?" Qibli said. "You should try threatening someone's elbows or ankles once in a while, just for a change of pace.

You're nonagoshabibble," Squid said. "Squid, be polite,