872 quotes found
“When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less.The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many d...”
“Language is a virus from outer space”
“It's embarrassingly plain how inadequate language is.”
“The greatest enemy of clear language is insincerity.”
“Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of cr...”
“We think because we have words, not the other way around. The more words we have, the better able we are to think conceptually.”
“The fact that Iam writing to youin Englishalready falsifies what Iwanted to tell you.My subject:how to explain to you that Idon't belong to Englishthough I belong nowhere else”
“All translations are made up" opined Vikram, "Languages are different for a reason. You can't move ideas between them without losing something”
“Language comes first. It's not that language grows out of consciousness, if you haven't got language, you can't be conscious.”
“I have been a believer in the magic of language since, at a very early age, I discovered that some words got me into trouble and others got me out. ”
“The misuse of language induces evil in the soul”
“There are all kinds of pedants around with more time to read and imitate Lynne Truss and John Humphrys than to write poems, love-letters, novels and stories it seems. They whip out their Sharpies a...”
“Mastery of language affords one remarkable opportunities.”
“With every fragment of rock that fall from me, I can hear the voice of Marianne Engle. I love you. Aishiteru. Ego amo te. Ti amo. Eg elska pig. Ich liebe dich. It is moving across time, coming to m...”
“Language disguises the thought; so that from the external form of the clothes one cannot infer the form of the thought they clothe, because the external form of the clothes is constructed with quit...”
“Yes, of course, there's something fishy about describing people's feelings. You try hard to be accurate, but as soon as you start to define such and such a feeling, language lets you down. It's rea...”
“Nobody believes me when I say that my long book is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real. But it is true.”
“It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. ”
“If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me", you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall yo...”
“To have another language is to possess a second soul.”
