8 quotes found
“Devising a vocabulary for gardening is like devising a vocabulary for sex. There are the correct Latin names, but most people invent euphemisms. Those who refer to plants by Latin name are consider...”
“Language disguises thought.”
“To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.”
“Often its not we who shape words, but the words we use that shape us.”
“It is naive to suppose that something that has been expressed in one form can be expressed in another without significantly changing its meaning, texture or value. Much prose translates fairly well...”
“It is possible to be a great novelist - that is, to render a veracious account of your times - and a bad writer - that is, an incompetent practitioner of applied linguistics.”
“Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.”
“Often it’s not we who shape words, but the words we use that shape us.”
