Quotes About Language

British officers arriving in India were supposed to spend up to three years in a Calcutta college, where they studied Hindu and Muslim law alongside English law; Sanskrit, Urdu and Persian alongside Greek and Latin; and Tamil, Bengali and Hindustani culture alongside mathematics, economics and geography.

La escritura nació como la criada de la conciencia humana, pero cada vez más se está convirtiendo en su dueña y señora.

A real 'clash of civilisations' is like the proverbial dialogue of the deaf. Nobody can grasp what the other is saying.

A real 'clash of civilisations' is like the proverbial dialogue of the deaf.

El lenguaje escrito pudo haberse concebido como un medio modesto para describir la realidad, pero gradualmente se convirtió en un medio poderoso para remodelarla.

sistema de procesamiento de datos que los sumerios inventaron se llama «escritura».

Apparently, even at the time of the Cognitive Revolution, different Sapiens groups had different dialects.

The expert goes over my text and says, "Don't use this word—use that word instead. Then we will get more attention from the Google algorithm." We know that if we can just catch the eye of the algorithm, we can take the humans for granted.

Mais je ne puis rien te répondre: car les mots Ont ceci de cruel qu'ils se refusent À ceux qui les respectent et les aiment Pour ce qu'ils pourraient être, non ce qu'ils sont.

You have to seduce the reader, manipulate their mind and heart, listen to the music of language. I sometimes think of prose as music, in terms of its rhythms and dynamics, the way you compress and expand the attention of a reader over a sentence, the way the tempo pushes you towards an image or sensation. We want an intense experience, so that we can forget ourselves when we enter the world of the book. When you are reading, the physical object of the book should disappear from your hands.

The teachers tried everything, even pleading, but Tomas was in the habit of addressing them only in Latin, a language he spoke with papal fluency and in which he did not stammer. Sooner or later they all resigned in despair, fearing he might be possessed: he might be spouting demonic instructions in Aramaic at them, for all they knew.

The speed of her tongue is not correctly calculated; the speed per second of her tongue should be slightly less than the speed per second of her thoughts--at any rate not the reverse.

Thus I am in Holland, the kingdom of things, great principality of objects. In Dutch, schoen means beautiful and at the same time clean, as if neatness was raised to the dignity of a virtue.

Let it be clarified here that neither the Akkadians nor the Sumerians had called these visitors to Earth gods. It is through later paganism that the notion of divine beings or gods has filtered into our language and thinking. When we employ the term here, it is only because of its general acceptance and usage that we do so.

The words are the words of English, but the sense is the sense of confusion.

The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?

The little child learns to speak, though it has no learned teachers - because it lives with those who know how to speak.

When there is both name and reality, We dwell in the realm of things; When there is neither name nor reality, We exist in a vacuity of things. We can speak and can think, But the more we speak, the further off we are. What is not yet born cannot be forbidden, What is already dead cannot be prevented. Death and birth are not distant, It's their principle that cannot be seen.

To use a finger as a metaphor for the nonfingerness of a finger is not as good as using nonfingerness as a metaphor for the nonfingerness of a finger.

A fish-trap is for catching fish; once you've caught the fish, you can forget about the trap. A rabbit-snare is for catching rabbits; once you've caught the rabbit, you can forget about the snare. Words are for catching ideas; once you've caught the idea, you can forget about the words. Where can I find a person who knows how to forget about words so that I can have a few words with them?

The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you've gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?

Words are the visible clothes that our invisible thoughts wear."—IKE REIGHARD

Critical words cut like a knife. And sarcasm is the same knife with a pearl handle.

We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.