Quotes About Language

Perché le parole, questa precisione brutale che maltratta le nostre complicazioni?

Feci presto a imparare a leggere.Tuttavia il mio pensiero si fermò a metà strada. Vedevo nell'immagine grafica l'esatto duplicato del suono che ad essa corrispondeva:emanavano insieme dalla cosa che esprimevano, e pertanto il loro rapporto non aveva nulla di arbitrario. La comprensione del segno non portò con se quella della convenzione.

A mind enclosed in language is in prison.

One can never really give a proof of the reality of anything; reality is not something open to proof, it is something established. It is established just because proof is not enough. It is this characteristic of language, at once indispensable and inadequate, which shows the reality of the external world. Most people hardly ever realize this, because it is rare that the very same man thinks and puts his thought into action.

Nous ne possédons rien au monde - car le hasard peut tout nous ôter - sinon le pouvoir de dire je

When authentic friends of God, such as Meister Eckhart in my opinion, repeat words they heard in secret amidst the silence during union with God, and are in disagreement with the teachings of the Church, it is simply that the language of the marketplace is not that of the nuptial chamber.

The desire to love the beauty of the world in a human being is essentially the desire for the Incarnation. If we think it is something else, we are mistaken. The Incarnation alone can satisfy it. It is also wrong to reproach those mystics who sometimes employ the language of lovers. They are the legitimate owners. The others are only right to borrow it.

A görögök nem ismerték a jog fogalmát. Még szavuk sem volt rá. Beérték az igazság nevével.

We need to be cautious in using language in a pejorative way. Words ending in -ism and -ist seem to lend themselves to emotive rather than descriptive use.

Remember our war hysteria, when we called sauerkraut 'Liberty cabbage' and somebody actually proposed calling German measles 'Liberty measles'? And wartime censorship of honest papers? Bad as Russia!

He liked Ross Ireland; he found particularly amusing, very like his own cultural pretenses, the fact that since Ireland was totally unable to learn any language save Iowan, he thundered that English was enough to take anybody anywhere and that these fellows that talk about your having to know French if you're going to do political stuff in Europe are just trying to show what smart guys they are.

It is the German who is so uncourteous to his verbs

Do you note the peculiar construction of the sentence—'This account of you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian could not have written that. It is the German who is so uncourteous to his verbs.

Sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge

There is more sense in your language, Bucklaw, replied the Master, than might have been expected from your conduct - it is too true, our vices steal upon us in forms outwardly fair as those of the demons whom the superstitious represent as intriguing with the human race, and are not discovered in their native hideousness until we have clasped them in our arms.

This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.

I see manuscripts and books that are spoiled for the literary reader because they are one long stream of top-of-the-head writing, a writer telling a story without concern for precision or freshness in the use of language. Some of this storytelling reads as if it were spoken rather than written, stuffed with tired images that pop into the writer's head because they are so familiar. The top of the head is fit for growing hair, but not for generating fine prose.

We are all writers from an early age. Most of what we write is nonfiction—essays for school, letters to friends, memoranda to colleagues—in which we are trying to pass on information. We are raised with a traditional nonfiction mind-set. Even when we write love letters, we are trying to communicate how we feel and not necessarily trying to evoke an emotion in the recipient, though that might be better suited to our purpose.

Diction involves the choice of words for their precise meaning and sound, the arrangement of those words, and their selection for effect.

The best of good writing will entice us into subjects and knowledge we would have declared were of no interest to us until we were seduced by the language they were dressed in.

Your sixth sense speaks to you in many ways—in symbols, pictures, metaphors, feelings, dreams, and even signs on the road. Your spirit has a language of its own, and the more freely you talk about your vibes, the more you come to know the language of your spirit.

No matter how confusing your body's signals may appear, they always make sense if you just listen and learn the language. Listening to your body's vibes for guidance and feedback may seem odd at first, but keep in mind that your body is a direct conduit to your Higher Self, and it won't mislead you. Every signal it sends has direct meaning and essential information for your physical well-being, spiritual balance, and safety.

Words can be used to sow seeds of destruction or germinate gorgeous flowering experiences.

In addition, careless and profane speech is debilitating over time to a sensitive, intuitive being because it creates a dissonant, negative vibration. Swearing excessively or using vulgar language, especially in place of actual words, disturbs the soul. Although it may seem harmless, using this kind of language erodes your light body and seriously lowers your vibration.