Language quotes
2.4K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside language — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"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 quite another object than to let the form of the body be recognized."
"Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear."
"If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things."
"Human life is driven forward by its dim apprehension of notions too general for its existing language."
"Rembrandt is so deeply mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language."
"Every form of power comes down to language. In law, there's all kinds of words you don't know if you're not a lawyer and that gives them power. In business, it's the same thing."
"I just don't like big guys who speak cryptically and act like they understand the language better than me."
"My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin."
"How astonishing it is that language can almost mean, and frightening that it does not quite."
"Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution - the 60's comes from it."
"By stretching language we'll distort it sufficiently to wrap ourselves in it and hide."
"In general, every country has the language it deserves."
"An entire mythology is stored within our language."
"language is never neutral"
"A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations."
"Language is an art, like brewing or baking.... It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learnt."
"Music is a great energizer. It's a language everybody knows."
"It is the theory that decides what can be observed."
"All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar's teeth."
"Language betrays, in order to mean."
