Quotes About Language

While we may not consider the way we talk to be 'violent,' our words often lead to hurt and pain, whether for others or for ourselves.

Every act of communication is an act of translation.

To write or speak is to communicate. To communicate is to share meanings, make them 'common' to all participants in the discourse. (The etymological root of communication means 'common.')

Language is the biggest barrier to human progress because language is an encyclopedia of ignorance. Old perceptions are frozen into language and force us to look at the world in an old fashioned way.

People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say.

Words are a wonderful form of communication, but they will never replace kisses and punches.

Every spoken word double-crosses us. The written word is the only tolerable form of communication, as it isn't a stone in a bridge between souls but a ray of light between stars.

Mental illness seems to be a communication problem between interpreters one and two.

The ultimate role of photography as a contemporary language of visual communication consists of its capacity to slow down our fast and chaotic way of reading images.

The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication.

The communication of ideas requires a similitude of thought and language . . .

Expression and communication in the peak–experiences tend often to become poetic, mythical, and rhapsodic, as if this were the natural kind of language to express such states of being.

Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation-it is the Self-escaping into the open.

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

If you wish to converse with me, define your terms.

We always speak well when we manage to be understood.

Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English.

When people hear needs, it provokes compassion. When people hear diagnoses, it provokes defensiveness and attack.

Carve every word before you let it fall.

Language is material to shape and mold, not only a transparent or invisible medium for communication, business contracts, or telling stories.

As advertising blather becomes the nation's normal idiom, language becomes printed noise.

I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain.