Quotes About Language

For if the truth were known, Love cannot speak, But only thinks and does; Though surely out 'twill leak Without the help of Greek, Or any tongue.

The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate times

One who has just come from reading perhaps one of the best English books will find how many with whom he can converse about it? Or suppose he comes from reading a Greek or Latin classic in the original, whose praises are familiar even to the so-called illiterate; he will find nobody at all to speak to, but must keep silence about it.

All true greatness runs as level a course, and is as unaspiring, as the plow in the furrow. It wears the homeliest dress and speaks the homeliest language

Prchavá pravda naÅ¡ich slov by mala neustále prezradzovaÃ…Â¥ nedostato?nosÃ…Â¥ toho, ?o eÅ¡te obsahoval náÅ¡ príhovor.

What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study.

Nous aimons l'éloquence pour l'éloquence et non pour la vérité qu'elle peut énoncer ou l'héroïsme qu'elle peut inspirer.

A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips;

We get the language with which to describe our various lives out of a common mint. (Letter, April 26, 1857, to B.B. Wiley)

A written word is the choicest of relics.

The man of science, who is not seeking for expression but for a fact to be expressed merely, studies nature as a dead language. I pray for such inward experience as will make nature significant.

something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips;—not be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself.

Those who have not learned to read the ancient classics in the language in which they were written must have a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the human race; for it is remarkable that no transcript of them has ever been made into any modern tongue, unless our civilization itself may be regarded as such a transcript. Homer has never yet been printed in English, nor AEschylus, nor Virgil even—works as refined

You cannot give anything more important than the Love reflected in your own life. That is the one true universal language, which allows us to speak Chinese or the dialects of India. For if, one day, you go to those places, the silent eloquence of Love will mean that you will be understood by everyone.

He said They were heartily welcome to his poor cottage, and turning to Mr. Didapper, cried out, 'Non mea renidet in domo lacunar.' The beau answered, He did not understand Welsh; at which the parson stared and made no reply.

impossible; a word which, in common conversation, is often used to signify not only improbable, but often what is really very likely, and, sometimes, what hath certainly happened; an hyperbolical violence like that which is so frequently offered to the words infinite and eternal; by the former of which it is usual to express a distance of half a yard, and by the latter, a duration of five minutes. And thus it is as usual to assert the impossibility of losing what is already actually lost.

Having at length finished his laboured harangue, with which the audience, though it had greatly raised their attention and admiration, were not much edified, as they really understood not a single

It is significant that while there is a word profiteer to stigmatize those who make allegedly excessive profits, there is no such word as wageer - or losseer.

There were several ways of understanding her: there was what she said, and there was what she meant, and there was something between the two, that was neither.

I adore adverbs; they are the only qualifications I really much respect.

Mrs. Penniman always, even in conversation, italicised her personal pronouns.

It is as difficult to suppose a person intending to write a modern English, as to suppose him writing an ancient English, novel; that is a label which begs the question. One writes the novel, one paints the picture, of one's language and of one's time, and calling it modern English will not, alas! make the difficult task any easier.

Vorbeam cu chibzuit? premeditare, dar, pe m?sur? ce cuvintele mele deveneau sonore, m? izbea imprudenÈ›a lor. TotuÈ™i, le d?deam drumul la noroc È™i nu-mi p?rea r?u, fiindc?, la urma urmei, poate c? b?trîna va fi dispus? s? negocieze.

Opera in English, is about as sensible as baseball in Italian.