"Its very variety, subtlety, and utterly irrational, idiomatic complexity makes it possible to say things in English which simply cannot be said in any other language."
Read quote
9 likes
Language quotes
Language
2.4K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Language
Browse quotes that often appear alongside language — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Language quotes (page 11 of 120)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"I'm no linguist, but I have been told that in the Russian language, there isn't even a word for freedom."
Read quote
9 likes
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."
Read quote
9 likes
"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words."
Read quote
9 likes
"The reformers' preferred metaphor is "leveling the playing field." They should listen to the logic of their language: fields are leveled by bulldozers."
Read quote
9 likes
"It's perfectly obvious that there is some genetic factor that distinguishes humans from other animals and that it is language-specific. The theory of that genetic component, whatever it turns out to be, is what is called universal grammar."
Read quote
9 likes
"The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it."
Read quote
9 likes
"How charmed I am when I overhear a German word which I understand!"
Read quote
9 likes
"What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language."
Read quote
9 likes
"The affectation of some late authors to introduce and multiply cant words is the most ruinous corruption in any language."
Read quote
9 likes
"The folktale is the primer of the picture-language of the soul."
Read quote
9 likes
"If there is anything good about exile, it is that it teaches one humility. It accelerates one’s drift into isolation, an absolute perspective. Into the condition at which all one is left with is oneself and one’s language, with nobody or nothing in between. Exile brings you overnight where it would normally take a lifetime to go."
Read quote
9 likes
"I admire people who dare to take the language, English, and understand it and understand the melody."
Read quote
9 likes
"When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder that such trivial people should muse and thunder in such lovely language."
Read quote
8 likes
"Nothing which is harmonized by the bond of the Muse can be changed from its own to another language without destroying its sweetness"
Read quote
8 likes
"Stay away from restaurants that have menus in five languages. Thats always a tourist trap. You want to eat where the locals eat."
Read quote
8 likes
"Spoken language is merely a series of squeaks."
Read quote
8 likes
"Algebra reverses the relative importance of the factors in ordinary language."
Read quote
8 likes
"You taught me language, and my profit on't / Is, I know how to curse"
Read quote
8 likes
"It is the language of nature to which one has to listen."
Read quote
8 likes