Language is one of the greatest gifts man has devised for himself. It ranks, alongside the discovery of fire and the wheel, as a major influence in making modern man what he is today.
Interpretation
Language is a powerful tool that has significantly shaped human civilization.
This quote highlights the importance of language as a fundamental gift that humanity has created. It emphasizes that just as fire and the wheel transformed human life, language has been crucial in developing communication, culture, and society, enabling us to express ideas, share knowledge, and connect with one another.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of education, I might use this quote to emphasize how language transforms learning.
We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles.
Speaking of Sir Winston Churchill: He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.
French is the language that turns dirt into romance.
French is the most beautiful,β he said, βand Italian is the most poetic, and Russian the most powerful, German the most solid. But more business is done in English than in any other.
The language itself, whether you speak it or not, whether you love it or hate it, is like some bewitchment or seduction from the past, drifting across the country down the centuries, subtly affecting the nations sensibilities even when its meaning is forgotten.
Words have a genealogy and it's easier to trace the evolution of a single word than the evolution of a language.
Part of what makes a language 'alive' is its constant evolution. I would hate to think Britain would ever emulate France, where they actually have a learned faculty whose job it is to attempt to prevent the incursion of foreign words into the language. I love editing Harry with Arthur Levine, my American editor-the differences between 'British English' (of which there must be at least 200 versions) and 'American English' (ditto!) are a source of constant interest and amusement to me.
A standard international language should not only be simple, regular, and logical, but also rich and creative.
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