Quotes About Language

En aquella metrópoli de lenguas y cuchicheos, ni los oídos más finos oían algo fidedigno

Words are for word people. You are not a person of that type. Concern yourself only with deeds.

the posture than the results. This language thing is part of that. Excuse me: if you clean up the language too much you kill it. Dirt is freedom. You have to leave a little dirt. Cleansing? I don't like the sound of that.

Our names contain our fates; living as we do in a place where names have not acquired the meaninglessness of the West, and are still more than mere sounds, we are also the victims of our titles.

Not to know the difference between a metaphor and a lie is one definition of insanity.

It seems that if our species ever eradicates itself through war, it will not be because it was written in the stars but because it was written in our books; it is what we do with words like 'God' and 'paradise' and ''sin' in the present that will determine our future.

We're not really free unless we can put matters in our own words. And if we can't put them in our own words, we can't talk to other people, because if we speak the words of the internet or the TV news, other people will recognize that, and they are not really in our company, but somewhere else.

All pro athletes are bilingual. They speak English and profanity.

Into this neutral air Where blind skyscrapers use Their full height to proclaim The strength of Collective Man, Each language pours its vain Competitive excuse.

Silence is no weakness of language. It is, on the contrary, its strength. It is the weakness of words not to know this.

My American strength coach said he liked me better before I could speak English.

It may be observed, that very polished languages, and such as are praised for their superior clearness and perspicuity, are generally deficient in strength.

They place great stress on the clarity of our language for expressing nuances and showing subtleties.

I think when we use 'stress', we are often using a kind of dummy word to try to fit many different things into one big category.

People acquiring a second language have the best chance for success through reading.

I hate books; they only teach people to talk about what they don't understand.

Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes.

Success and vocabulary go hand in hand. This has been proven so often that it no longer admits of argument.

for in prosperity prayers seem but a mere medley of words, until misfortune comes and the unhappy sufferer first understands the meaning of the sublime language in which he invokes the pity of heaven!

to a happy man, a prayer is a monotonous composition, void of meaning, until the day when suffering deciphers the sublime language through which the poor victim addresses God.

All the pious ideas that had been so long forgotten, returned; he recollected the prayers his mother had taught him, and discovered a new meaning in every word; for in prosperity prayers seem but a mere medley of words, until misfortune comes and the unhappy sufferer first understands the meaning of the sublime language in which he invokes the pity of heaven!

Besides, what is required of a young man in Paris? To speak its language tolerably, to make a good appearance, to be a good gamester, and to pay in cash.

For Milady was well aware that her most seductive power was in her voice, which could run skilfully through the whole scale of tones, from mortal speech, upwards to the language of heaven.

One of his peculiarities was never to speak a word of French, which he however wrote with great facility.