Words let us say the things we want to say and also things we would be better off not having said. They let us know the things we need to know, and also things we wish we didn't.
Interpretation
Words have the power to express our thoughts, both positively and negatively, and can reveal truths we may prefer to ignore.
This quote by Steven Pinker highlights the dual nature of language; words are powerful tools that allow us to communicate our desires and thoughts, while also exposing uncomfortable truths. Language can serve both as a means of connection and a source of regret, as it can articulate both valuable insights and painful realities that we might wish to keep hidden from ourselves and others.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of responsible communication.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
You can send a message around the world in one-fifth of a second, yet it may take years for it to get from the outside of a man's head to the inside.
You can't truly listen to someone and do anything else at the same time.
I don't know what a softball question is. All I know is I have no agenda. I ask short questions, and I listen to the answer.
Nonviolent Communication shows us a way of being very honest, but without any criticism, without any insults, without any put-downs, without any intellectual diagnosis implying wrongness.
I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.
Not only are bloggers suckers for the remarkable, so are the people who read blogs.
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