Quotes About Language

expressing one's reality in words, as truthful as they might be, goads one to insincerity.

In Turkish we have a special tense that allows us to distinguish hearsay from what we've seen with our own eyes; when we are relating dreams, fairy tales, or past events we could not have witnessed, we use this tense.

The word 'soviet' means 'council' in Russian (there was nothing particularly Communist about it until after 1917).

Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.

Humans invent an imaginary lover and put that mask over the face of the body in their bed. That is the tragedy of language my friend. Those who know each other only through symbolic representations are forced to imagine each other. And because their imagination is imperfect, they are often wrong.

He would always speak the language of the heart with an awkward foreign accent.

If words can be lethal weapons, I must provide them with an arsenal.

You who speak languages, you are such liars.

Mom, said Peter, nobody thinks you're a lackwit, if that's what you're worried about. Lackwit? In what musty drawer of some dead English professor's dust-covered desk did you find that word? I assure you that never in my worst nightmares did I ever suppose that I was a lackwit.

So the whole war is beause we can't talk to each other.

In philosophy class I think we finally decided that 'good' is an infinitely recursive term - it can't be defined except in terms of itself. Good is good because it's better than bad, though why it's better to be good than bad depends on how you define good, and on and on.

Oops, I thought. Oops is an all-purpose word standing for every bit of profanity, blasphemy, and pornographic and scatological execration I could think of.

I speak to everyone in the language they understand, said Ender. That isn't being slick. It's being clear

Rigg) had often complained that all these languages were useless, and Father had only said, A man who speaks but one language understands none.

Today, one of the brothers asked me: Is it a terrible prison, not to be able to move from the place where you're standing? You answered... I told him that I am now more free than he is. The inability to move frees me from the obligation to act. You who speak languages, you are such liars.

This is all so silly,' said Diko. 'Who cares about what's real and what isn't real? [...] And as for our own history, the parts that will be lost, who cares if a mathematician calls us dirty names like unreal? They say such slanders about the square root of minus two as well.

most truth can only be expressed in circular paradoxes.

That is the tragedy of language, my friend. Those who know each other only through symbolic representations are forced to imagine each other. And because their imagination is imperfect, they are often wrong.

What an unfriendly country," said Noxon. "Different time, different place," said Wheaton. "We think we're a very welcoming country. Generous and kind. Unless we don't like your language or the way you look.

the conversation of the mind was truer than any language, and they knew each other better than they ever could have by use of mere sight and touch.

How I wish you could have kept on living such a life of joy. But no one can. Language comes to us, and with it lies and threats, cruelty and disappointment. You walk, and those steps lead you outside the shelter of your home. To keep the joy of childhood you would have to die as a child, or live as one, never becoming a man, never growing.

The illusion of comprehension allowed people to think they were more alike than they really were. Maybe language was better.

We saved our lives, Ender.' 'No,' said Ender. 'That's what we thought we were doing, and that's what we should be judged for – but what we really did was slaughter a species that wanted desperately to make peace with us, to try to understand us – but they never understood what speech and language were. This is the first time they've had a chance to find a voice.

Wang-mu was surprised to hear Peter sound so oriental. The American way was to make excuses, to stay and argue.