Quotes About Language

Can the mind of a philosopher rise to a more just and magnificent, and at the same time a more amiable idea of the Deity than is here set forth in the strongest images and most emphatical language? And yet this is the language of shepherds and fishermen.

Tomaz believed that 80% alpinism was mental and spiritual and that his third eye vision & openness of his mind to the language of the walls were critical

Zegas began where Ford left off: with insinuations about Leslie's sexual proclivities. "Did she know the word coming?" he asked. "Did she know what jerked him off meant?" "Not unless someone explained them to her. I wouldn't expect her to use those words with me," Carol said. "But if she heard words in a sentence, she'd parrot it back. She'd get attention like a young child using the word doo-doo.

We're persecuted in the most civilized languages.

Ne complic?m viaÈ›a vrând s? compunem fraze sofisticate È™i complimente pentru a-i seduce pe ceilalÈ›i; dar Bilsheim b?gase de seam? c? acest simplu cuvânt, "evident", era mai mult decât suficient. Înc? un mister al comunic?rii interumane elucidat.

Fais sortir les sentiments rentrés. N'oublie pas que le mot "maladie" vient de "mal à dire".

Yes, sin-ah, without the final yod that is also one of the letters in the name of God.

African peoples were referred to as black long after the word made its appearance in the English language, so it makes no sense to retroactively impose racist connotations on to its everyday usage, and if you do, you're going to drive yourself mad and, I'm sorry to say, everyone else with you

Amma considered thanking Nzinga for informing her she was mentally enslaved, and told her that African peoples were referred to as black long after the word made its appearance in the English language, so it makes no sense to retroactively impose racist connotations on to its everyday usage, and if you do, you're going to drive yourself mad and, I'm sorry to say, everyone else with you

Nzinga then launched into the racial implications of stepping on a black doormat rather than over it, of not wearing black socks (why would you step on your own people?), and don't ever use black garbage bags, she instructed, as for blackmail, blackball, black mood, black magic, black sheep, black-hearted, I never wear black underpants, for example, why crap on myself? I'm surprised you all don't know this already

The people in his Harlem did not speak, they sang their way through conversations and disagreements,

I break up the English a little bit. I don't mean to do it, but it just comes out that way.

Anyway, zis is Austria. Now somesing else funny! Ze Austrians do not call it 'Austria.' Zey call it O-s-t-e-r-r-e-i-c-h!" and the professor wrote the letters out on the blackboard. "Zat is because zey do not know how to spell. Zey are very nice people, se Austrians, but you will notice zey are very bad spellers.

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize until you have tried to make it precise.

No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor, but honest.

I don't know why everybody doesn't write because everybody talks.

We have inherited the term "sexual revolution" from those who first coined it in the 1960s, and in adopting their phrase we have perpetuated some of the confusions of that era. We continue to hear echoes of danger in the word "revolution." We continue to conflate very different impulses and outcomes. This received language to revolution has made it much more difficult for us to understand and discuss the roles and meanings of sex in contemporary America.

I'm going to do what any self-respecting English major would do: pull something out of my ass.

To the English majors. We may not always be practical, but we have infinite potential.

Were there language, I'd be my own lone letter.

Explain little. Evoke all.

Because sentences are for making," I finally said. "Sentences are the risks we take.

but every person who does serious time with a keyboard is attempting to translate his version of the world into words so that he might be understood.

For the writer who truly loves language, a trip to the copy editor is like a week at a spa. You come out looking younger, trimmer, and standing straighter.