Quotes About Understanding

Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things which differ and the difference of things which are alike.

The well of true wit is truth itself.

Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?

A word to the wise is sufficient.

For words, like Nature, half reveal And half conceal the Soul within.

He multiplieth words without knowledge.

If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales.

The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.

The art of translation lies less in knowing the other language than in knowing your own.

Words are the small change of thought.

Words should be weighed and not counted.

Often I am struck in amazement about a word: I suddenly realize that the complete arbitrariness of our language is but a part of the arbitrariness of our own world in general.

Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech.

Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye.

Who does not know another language, does not know his own.

The word is half his that speaks, and half his that hears it.

Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make clear.

There is only one way to degrade mankind permanently and that is to destroy language.

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.

"Plain English" - everybody loves it, demands it - from the other fellow.

Words are as recalcitrant as circus animals, and the unskilled trainer can crack his whip at them in vain.

Everyone hears only what he understands.

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

Most people have to talk so they won't hear.