Quotes About Language

Speech was given to the ordinary sort of men, whereby to communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal it.

A man reacheth not to excellence with one language.

Man is a talking animal and he will always let himself be swayed by the power of the word. Machines won't change human nature.

It is most absurdly said, in popular language, of any man, that he is disguised in liquor; for, on the contrary, most men are disguised by sobriety.

Poor Knight! he really had two periods, the firsta dull man writing broken English, the seconda broken man writing dull English.

Words signify man's refusal to accept the world as it is.

The true speech of man is idiomatic, if not of the earth and sky, then at least of the saloon and the bleachers.

The word "artist" means man unless qualified by the category "woman.

Great men, like nature, use simple language.

The written word may be man's greatest invention. It allows us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn.

A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him.

Without language, it is safe to say that man would not have become fully human.

The study of science teaches young men to think, while study of the classics teaches them to express thought.

The habit of paying compliments kept a man's tongue oiled without any expense.

The first language that I learned was Italian in Italy in the early and middle-'60s and I had to do that to keep up with the young men who were courting my wife.

When a man eats his words, that's recycling.

Literature... is condemned (or privileged) to be forever the most rigorous and, consequently, the most reliable of terms in which man names and transforms himself.

I know ours is a world made by men for men, their dictatorship is so ancient it even extends to language.

Only a very dull man spells a word the same way twice.

The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me.

Church reminded me very much of going to shul. It was a bunch of men wearing long robes, speaking in a language I didn't understand.

Humans were denied the speech of animals. The only common ground of communication upon which dogs and men can get together is in fiction.

A man notices a womans figure when she walks in a room. Women have eight million words for blue; a man says dark blue or light blue.

A man says what he knows, a woman says what will please.