Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
Language is an art, like brewing or baking.... It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learnt.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Language is a learned skill, akin to artistic endeavors like brewing or baking.
In this quote, Charles Darwin emphasizes that language is not an innate instinct but rather a crafted skill that requires learning and practice. He compares the art of language to other creative pursuits, highlighting the complexity and artistry involved in mastering communication.
Themes
LanguageArtLearningCommunicationSkill
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on linguistics, a professor might quote Darwin to illustrate the artistry involved in mastering a language.
More from Charles Darwin
All quotes βThe highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
Charles DarwinRead
I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science....It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.
Charles DarwinRead
We cannot fathom the marvelous complexity of an organic being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm--a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.
Charles DarwinRead
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
Charles DarwinRead
we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps
Charles DarwinRead
Similar quotes
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See that your children be taught, not only the labors of the earth, but the loveliness of it.
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I think of reading like a balanced diet; if your sentences are too baggy, too baroque, cut back on fatty Foster Wallace, say, and pick up Kafka as roughage.
Zadie SmithRead
Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head.
Paul AusterRead
One of the first things a family tries to teach its children is the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. One of the first things our schools do is destroy that distinction.
John Taylor GattoRead