Quotes About Language

God's process of revelation required that he condescend to us, that he accommodate our humanity, that he express himself in familiar language and metaphors. It should be no surprise then that many of the common elements of the culture of the day were adopted, at times adapted, at times totally converted or transformed, but nevertheless used to accomplish God's purposes.

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. (PSALM 19:1–4)

If I say: "I know that either it is raining or it is not raining," this is a tautology. It is the opposite of a contradiction, in that it is true whatever the circumstances, but it says nothing as it applies to nothing in particular.

The business of philosophy is critique. It clarifies the limits of meaningful language. Science on the other hand consists of all true propositions. It studies the existence or nonexistence of states of affairs.

The whole idea of "connections" between language and reality is a false one.

When we think language is on one side and reality is on the other, and then puzzle as to how they link up, we forget that we dwell in language and are merely imagining that we can point at them.

So, it is the spirit in which one acts that is vital, and the notion of language games clarifies this.

In his many remarks on mathematics, Wittgenstein is concerned to show the delusiveness of this picture. For when we reflect on it, we forget that we are looking at a projection of our own decisions and their consequences.

We must do away with all explanation and allow only description in its place".

He had an early formulation of what in the Tractatus he saw more clearly — that we can speak of existence only when we assert the truth of some proposition that is not itself existential.

After the rise and decline of Greek civilisation and the Roman destruction of the city of Carthage, they made one area of the conquered territories into a province which they called Africa, a word derived from afri and the name of a group of people about whom little is known. At first the word applied only to the Roman colonies of North Africa. There was a time when all dark-skinned people were called Ethiopians, for the Greeks referred to Africa as the Land of the Burnt-face People.

Ihre Geheimnisse sind nicht anderes als die in menschliche Sprache gekleideten Formeln von Wahrheiten, die der menschliche Geist nicht zu erfassen vermag

Slang surely, as it is called, comes of, and breathes of the personal

A whole world of horror is contained in the process of definition.

I learned a strange thing... that in a jumble of unintelligible talk, the word nigger leaps out with electric clarity. You always hear it and it always stings. And always it casts the person using it into a category of brute ignorance. I thought with some amusement that if these two women only knew what they were revealing about themselves to every Negro on that bus, they would have been outraged.

I learned a strange thing - that in a jumble of unintelligible talk, the word n***** always leaps out with electric clarity. You always hear it and always it stings. And always it casts the person using it into a category of brute ignorance.

And when you love a book, commit one glorious sentence of it-perhaps your favorite sentence-to memory. That way you won't forget the language of the story that moved you to tears.

When people say that German or any other language is romantic... all they really mean is that they've enjoyed a past in the language.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about the penis word.

And when you love a book, commit one glorious sentence of it—perhaps your favorite sentence—to memory. That way you won't forget the language of the story that moved you to tears.

In the sixties, dear Bill, we did not say 'top' and 'bottom' - we said 'pitcher' and 'catcher'...

I didn't try to say the penis word for Elaine. Cock, I said to her.

Americans are suckers for an English accent.

You have taught yourself to read English, too," Pepe said slowly to the boy; the girl suddenly gave him the shivers, for no known reason. "English is just a little different—I can understand it," the boy told him