Quotes About Language

Once you even acknowledge that there is a line, that there are things you shouldn't be allowed to joke about, that there are words that can't be said no matter the context, you're selling out the very idea of comedy.

And the regulatory agencies are not stingy with their words either. Consider this: The Lord's Prayer contains 56 words; the Gettysburg Address, 266; the Ten Commandments, 297; the Declaration of Independence, 300; and a recent U.S. government order setting the price of cabbage, 26,911.

It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do.

We can be laughed into silence for attempting to speak in praise of phenomena which we lack the right words to describe. We may censor ourselves before others have the chance to do so. We may not even notice that we have extinguished our own curiosity, just as we may forget we had something to say until we find someone who is willing to hear it.

You can tell a paragraph is slipping out of control when there's a runaway use of the word 'hence.

Wanting to sound like other people has its temptations. There are inherited habits of speech guaranteed to make us sound authoritative, intelligent, worldly, appropriately grateful, or deeply moved.

The ease with which we can connect the psychological world with the outer, visual and sensory one seeds our language with metaphors.

I found myself wishing that the rest of mankind would follow the engineers' example and agree on a series of symbols which could point incontrovertibly to certain elusive, vaporous and often painful psychological states — a code which might help us feel less tongue-tied and less lonely, and enable us to resolve arguments with swift and silent exchanges of equations.

Chi pronuncia parole d'amore è come chi lancia un messaggio in codice con una trasmittente difettosa, senza mai essere sicuro di cosa viene captato (e, ciò nonostante, come un dente di leone che libera infinite spore delle quali una minima parte si riproduce, quel fortuito, ottimistico tentativo di telecomunicazione va compiuto - fiducia nel servizio postale).

If, as Proust suggests, we are obliged to create our own language, it is because there are dimensions to ourselves absent from clichés, which require us to flout etiquette in order to convey with greater accuracy the distinctive timbre of our thought.

The only way to defend language is to attack it....' - Proust. Every good writer in history had, in order to ensure adequate expression, broken a range of rules laid down by previous writers.

It is difficult to get the news from poems

the way we speak is ultimately linked to the way we feel, because how we describe the world must at some level reflect how we first experience it.

The whole language of love had been corrupted by overuse.

nuestra forma de hablar está, en definitiva, vinculada a nuestra forma de sentir, ya que la manera en que describimos el mundo tiene que reflejar a ciertos niveles cómo lo experimentamos.

BulunduÄŸu ortamda defalarca telaffuz edilmiÅŸ bir sözcüÄŸü duymayan, t?pk? ancak anlam?n? öÄŸrendikten sonra o sözcüÄŸü duymaya baÅŸlayan birine benzeriz.

Because we inhibit the same material world and manoeuvre with languages tied to common definitions, we talk to others in the assumption that they largely share our images and conceptions.

singing in the old-fashioned language of this good-hearted man, who sold us Hope at the lowest possible price

Miss S. bevorzugte das pathetische Wort 'land' gegenüber dem üblichen 'country'. 'This land …' In diesem Sinne gebraucht, ist es zwar nicht direkt die Sprache des Wahnsinns, aber doch der Besessenheit. Zeugen Jehovas sprechen ständig von 'this land', ebenso die National Front. Land ist gleich country plus Vorsehung – ein Land im Angesicht Gottes. Auch Mrs. Thatcher sagt 'this land'.

How old does one have to be still to say tits?

I think the need for reading boils down to one simple issue: children are selfish. Reading about other people creates a sense of balance in a child's life. It gives them the knowledge that there is a world outside themselves. It tells them that the language they are learning at home is the key to unlocking the mysteries of the greater world.

Kyetäkseen kirjoittamaan ihmisen on oltava sitkeä.

while most readers recognize the profound wisdom imbued in Tao Te Ching, the language remains mysterious to many. Utter simplicity can seem confusing to the complicated mind.

Communications can be precise and exacting while still being tragically wrong.