Quotes on Language And Communication

If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.

We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.

But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.

Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.

The limits of my language means the limits of my world.

Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.

Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.

Evil communication corrupts good manners. I hope to live to hear that good communication corrects bad manners.

When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practiced man relies on the language of the first.