Quotes About Language

Qu'est-ce que le texte, sinon un gigantesque cartilage verbal?

Vivir en el extranjero era una enfermedad respiratoria.

Enfler » doit être le verbe correct. Je prends de plus en plus de volume, comme si un big bang intérieur avait eu lieu lors de mon arrivée en Irak.

Siempre existe un modo e obedecer.Esto es lo que los cerebros occidentales deberían comprender. -Quizás el cerebro nipón sea capaz de obligarse a sí mismo a olvidar un idioma. El cerebro occidental carece de ese recurso. [...] -Inténtelo de todos modos. O, por los menos, hago como que lo intenta. He recibido órdenes al respecto. ¿Me ha comprendido?

El examen del edificante lenguaje ajeno me llevó a la siguiente conclusión: hablar era un acto tan creativo como destructivo. Era mejor andarse con mucho cuidado con aquel invento.

Siempre resulta más bonito llevar un nombre. Habitar unas sílabas que habitan un todo es uno de los asuntos más relevantes de esta vida.

Ciò dimostra che al giorno d'oggi la mancanza di pedanteria viene scambiata per furto deliberato.

Ce que l'on a vécu laisse dans la poitrine une musique : c'est elle qu'on s'efforce d'entendre à travers le récit. Il s'agit d'écrire ce son avec les moyens du langage. Cela suppose des coupes et des approximations. On élague pour mettre à nu le trouble qui nous a gagnés.

Drink me without limit, my love, may your thirst fulfill you and never be quenched, since that word does not exist in any language

L'examen de l'édifiant langage d'autrui m'amena à cette conclusion: parler était un acte aussi créateur que destructeur. Il valait mieux faire très attention avec cette invention.

Par le passé, j'avais appris l'anglais, le néerlandais, l'allemand et l'italien. Il y avait une constante avec ces langues vivantes : je les comprenais mieux que je ne les parlais. C'était dans l'ordre de la logique : on observe un comportement avant de l'adopter. L'intuition linguistique fonctionne même quand la compétence n'est pas encore atteinte.

What is a flower? A giant sexual organ in its Sunday best. The truth has been known for a long time, yet, over-aged adolescents that we are, we persist in speaking sentimental drives about the delicacy of flowers. We construct idiotic phrases like "So-and-so is in the flower of his youth", which is as absurd as saying "in the vagina of his youth".

You have to look at the value of different kinds of words. Adjectives weaken, and adverbs come even farther down the line. Verbs are strong; verbs and nouns.

The language of our democracy should be such that the weakest in our society should feel safe.

'Y' is about the weakest letter of all. 'Y' can't make up its mind if it's a vowel or a consonant, can it?

When you are learning through poetry how to speak English, it lends to a great understanding of sound, of pitch, of pronunciation, so I think of my speech impediment not as a weakness or a disability, but as one of my greatest strengths.

When I write in Italian - this is just the metaphor that came to me immediately, and I really think this is what it is - I feel like I'm writing with my left hand. Because of that weakness, there is this enormous freedom that comes with it.

Good movies are my weakness. I have seen several international movies ranging from English to Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese.

There is a wealth of readership for regional language literature in India that is not given importance. We must give respect to our own languages.

People of my generation in Portugal fell into the magic potion of political ideas. What was very funny about this revolution was that it did not bring wealth to the Portuguese. But it brought language, ideas. You'd go to the fish market, and all the women who were selling fish would call each other fascist, communist.

Poetry seems to be the only weapon able to beat language, using language's own means.

I believe absolutely that words must be treated as material weapons, every invective or threat as violence and aggression.

Cursing is highly effective in person - someone kicks his car in rage, forgetting he's wearing flip-flops, flames pour from his mouth, and it's impressive. But you see it in print, and it's just ugly.

There are two possibilities: Either the kiss is a human universal, one of the constellation of innate traits, including language and laughter, that unites us as a species, or it is an invention, like fire or wearing clothes, an idea so good that it was bound to metastasize across the globe.