513 quotes found
“To me the term 'middle-class' connotes a safe comfortable middle-of-the road policy. Above all our language is 'middle-class' in the middle of our road. To drive it to one side or the other or even...”
“Similes are like songs of love: They much describe they nothing prove.”
“'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...”
“The word is half his that speaks and half his that hears it.”
“Words once spoken can never be recalled.”
“Some words are like the old Roman galleys large-scaled and ponderous. They sit low in the water even when their cargo is light.”
“Words like eyeglasses blur everything that they do not make clear.”
“More than kisses letters mingle souls.”
“I wonder what language truck drivers are using now that everyone is using theirs?”
“The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out communication is getting through.”
“The Englishman loves to roll his tongue around the word 'extraordinary'. It so pleases him that he is reluctant to finish the sound which goes on into harmonics and overtones. The North American pu...”
“Speech is civilization itself. The word even the most contradictory word preserves contact - it is silence which isolates.”
“Like stones words are laborious and unforgiving and the fitting of them together like the fitting of stones demands great patience and strength of purpose and particular skill.”
“The downtrodden who are the great creators of slang hurl pithiness and colour at poverty and oppression.”
“Slang is language which takes off its coat spits on its hands - and goes to work.”
“Man's command of the language is most important. Next to kissing it's the most exciting form of communication.”
“"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.”
“Language is the armoury of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.”
“Language most shows a man speak that I may see thee.”
