Quotes About Language

Neither male nor female language adequately grasps the fullness of the divine reality (Gregory Nazianzus, Orat. 27; John of Damascus, OF 1.4–8).

God has left a trail of language behind a stormy path of historical activities. That language is primarily the evidence with which theology has to deal—first with Scripture, then with a long history of interpretation of Scripture called church history and tradition, and finally with the special language that emerges out of each one's own personal experience of meeting the living God

The faithful have no dread of using the traditional language of the church. Terms like incarnation and resurrection need to be explained, not avoided.

Many of Wesley's ultramodern interpreters are focused on accommodating Wesley in ways congenial to contemporary audiences. Some have entirely recast Wesley in terms of liberation theology or process theology or gender studies in a way that leaves Wesley himself only vaguely recognizable. My mission is to let him speak for himself in his own language to modern believers

The word grammar—the first step in the course of classical study that molded all educated men from Plato to Augustine—will be mispronounced by one barbarian tribe as "glamour." In other words, whoever has grammar—whoever can read—possesses magic inexplicable.

Certainly the Art of Writing is the most miraculous of all things man has devised.

Sarcasm is the language of the devil, for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it.

Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the Devil; for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it.

What are your Axioms, and Categories, and Systems, and Aphorisms? Words, words.... Be not the slave of Words...

May blessings be upon the head of Cadmus, the Phoenicians, or whoever it was that invented books.

Music is well said to be the speech of angels

1754: Immanuel Kant hat eine Begegnung mit dem Ding an sich und sagt, er könne nicht darüber sprechen.

Oxford philosopher John Austin pointed out that saying, "I promise," is a whole different linguistic deal

I started my career in Naval Intelligence when I entered as a Russian language interpreter sent to DLI, the Defense Language Institute.

I'm interested in the way language is used to navigate the world around us.

I was stage-struck from an early age. I just loved the language. We lived quite near Stratford so I would cycle and watch the plays.

I love Tamil, and needless to say, I love my state.

I don't think you negotiate with people by going around telling them that they're like Nazi guards or it's all about prosecco.

You start learning English in fifth grade. I was 12. But even before then I was listening to American music. My neighbor was a really big hip-hop fan, so he taught me everything around hip-hop.

I was born in America but all of my friends' parents, everybody's parents, including my own, had come to America from Europe. Many people in my neighborhood hardly bothered to learn English.

Iran is not in any sort of routine groupings. It's not an Arab country. It's not part of the Indian subcontinent. So it's in a neighborhood where it has some unique characteristics. We are a country which embraced Islam, learned Arabic, but didn't change its language or its culture... That's what keeps us unique.

Myth is neither a lie nor a confession: it is an inflexion.

Hebrew as a contemporary language, especially for poetry, is no longer the language of the Bible; but neither is it not the language of the Bible.

When my nephew was 3 and 4, he would say the most genius things. He said, You're hammer macho with FBI dogs. I thought it was just one of those great lines.