Quotes About Language

Jack loudly protested against such literal interpretation of his figurative language, and a very pretty bout with fisticuffs was the result,—the innocent kettle ultimately being battered to pieces in the fray. Such is men's justice; in all their quarrels there is always some poor luckless kettle which, sinless itself, gets the blows from each side

Tears at times have all the weight of speech.

We can only cope with the dangers of language if we recognize that language is by nature magical and therefore highly dangerous.

There is no surer or more illuminating way of reading a man's character, and perhaps a little of his past history, than by observing the contexts in which he prefers to use certain words.

All conscious nature has experiences of pleasure and pain. Man alone can deliberately will the repetition of an experience. And repetition, experienced as such, is at the heart, for good and evil, of his faculty of reasoning, and thus makes possible his language, his art, his morality, and indeed his humanity. Yet it is the enemy of life, for repetition is itself the principle, not of life but of mechanism.

Understanding what another human being says to us is always a matter of translation.

When a new thing or a new idea comes into the consciousness of the community, it is described, not by a new word, but by the name of the pre-existing object which most closely resembles it.

that [rational] principle alone cannot add one iota to knowledge. It can clear up obscurities, it can measure and enumerate with greater and ever greater precision, it can preserve us in the dignity and responsibility of our individual existences. But in no sense can it be said ... to expand consciousness. Only the poetic can do this: only poesy, pouring into language its creative intuitions, can preserve its living meaning and prevent it from crystalizing into a kind of algebra. (144)

He possessed that quality in his profanity of not offending by it.

Y'know, swearing is just part of who we are – we're forever effing and blinding.

Nekem szavakról szavak jutnak az eszembe és viszont.

Az úgynevezett irodalmi szenzációk többnyire nem irodalmiak, bár mivel azt, mi az irodalom, nem tudja senki élÅ' ember, azt is jótékony homály fedi, mi az irodalmi szenzáció. Talán itt is úgy van, hogy az az, amit annak mondanak.

I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism.

"Give us this day our daily bread" is probably the most perfectly constructed and useful sentence ever set down in the English language.

Don't fuck with an English major. They keep lots of useless crap trapped in their heads. Once in a while they let some of it out and it bites you square on the ass.

Don't fuck with an English major. They keep lots of useless crap trapped in their heads. Once in a while they let some of it out and it bites you square on the ass.

Thoughts are just as real as words.

What a great language I have, it's a fine language we inherited from the fierce Conquistadors…. They carried everything off and left us everything…. They left us the words.

As far as I am concerned, a painting speaks for itself. What is the use of giving explanations, when all is said and done? A painter has only one language.

Vendrán de París las modas y los libros; los pasteles de Hungría, la ilustración de Viena; peluqueros a bandadas, cocineros en montón. Se ordenará que los chicos se olviden del español, y que las beatas recen en la lengua de Voltaire, pero sólo la lengua, no la lectura, porque esa seguirá siendo perniciosa.

Sisters don't need words. They have perfected a language of snarls and smiles and frowns and winks — expressions of shocked surprise and incredulity and disbelief. Sniffs and snorts and gasps and sighs — that can undermine any tale you're telling.

Conversations in French bubble around me like a long-forgotten perfume I am desperate to inhale. Familiar words trickle back, first in a stream then a river, though I've scarcely heard them in half a century.

Not all Americans talk like me. The states in America are kind of like your countries over here,

You give head with that dirty mouth?