Quotes About Language

Why do all your friends talk like books?

OUR MAGIC WORDS are 'please' and 'thank you'. The French have those, plus two more: 'hello' and 'goodbye'. They're especially zealous about making their children say 'bonjour' as soon as they walk into somebody's house. Children don't get to slouch in under the cover of their parents' greeting.

You're fluent in a language once you can explain to someone—in that language—how to tie his shoes"? (I can.)

James Joyce's Ulysses

Every kiss has its own meaning. As the early-twentieth-century French chanteuse Mistinguett said: "A kiss can be a comma, a question mark, or an exclamation point. That's basic spelling that every woman ought to know.

Voltaire also keenly endorsed Catherine of Russia's plan to 'preach tolerance with bayonets at the end of their rifles' in Poland. Exhorting Catherine to learn Greek as she prepared to attack the Ottoman Empire, he added that 'it is absolutely necessary to chase from Europe the Turkish language, as well as all those who speak it'.

Non si riferisce il reale, lo si proferisce.

La lingua è cosa viva e come tutte le cose vive deve vedersela con larealtà.

Passare dal norvegese al russo è cambiare mondo (...); trionfano le i, frequenti e variegate come le betulle.

hear the language, this English, double-jointed as Bedivere's limbs. It only sounds awkward. In its ability to join one concept to another as with pegs, its dependent clauses, figures of speech and cadenced alliteration, a man can say one thing five ways and yet imply a sixth; can change meaning with an inflection, a pause or a deliberate misuse of a word, can mock, scorn and flay an opponent without uttering one overt insult.

Wherefore all these things are but the names which mortals have given, believing them to be true

Thou canst not recognize not-being (for this is impossible), nor couldst thou speak of it, for thought and being are the same thing.

L'écrivain est le langage qui se dévore lui-même dans l'homme dévoré par le mentir qui en fait le noyau.

Il appartient à la structure du langage d'être son propre tiers. L'écrivain comme le penseur savent qui est en eux le vrai narrateur : la formulation. Voilà ce que je fais : le travail du langage pesant, pensant, penchant, dépensant lui-même.

Ma tristesse est indéfinissable. Vous avez raison de m'adresser ce reproche. La parole ne peut jamais dire ce dont je veux parler et je ne sais comment le dire...

Certains animaux connaissent des extases peut-être plus puissantes ontologiquement à partir de leur silence et au sein de leur appartenance au milieu, que nous-mêmes à partir du langage et dans notre désappartenance progressive encore qu'intermittente à la nature. Certains cerfs d'automne pris dans leur brume sont plus au courant de l'intrigue originelle que les dieux.

Words, he decided, were inadequate at best, impossible at worst. They meant too many things. Or they meant nothing at all.

There are no simple words. I don't know why I thought I could hide anything behind language.

If "OK" meant that "it's all right to get up now," it makes sense that Pip would respond when she heard it. So if your dog Chief can pick the word sit out of the middle of a sentence, what is he to make of "Good sit" after he already sat? With Pip I got caught up in using words as if I were talking to a human, and I think other owners replicate that mistake often.1

We are hardwired to remember negative events over positive ones, so we ruminate on our mistakes and the slights of others. Our ability to use language means that we can spend hours mentally criticizing what we did in the past or worrying about what we'll do in the future. No wonder we love dogs, who don't need meditation retreats to get over the shame of getting into the garbage last Thursday.

She hit us," the woman shrieked. That was the gist of it anyway. There were a lot of unladylike words that began with "F," with various "C" words thrown in for leavening. … "Ben's better," I murmured. "He's more creative when he swears." "He does it in that English accent, which is too cool.

She had no idea who the dagos were. Her racist vocabulary obviously needed work. What would a racist call werewolves? Wargs? She kind of liked that one, but suspected that racist bastards didn't read Tolkien.

Double-zap," said Tag. "That is not a technical term, I hope," murmured Asil. "Only the most technically advanced people can use 'double-zap' correctly," Anna told Asil sotto voce. "You and I shouldn't try it.

My French friend tells me that someday, if I work at it, I may no longer be flattering myself when I say I can speak a very little French.