Quotes on Language

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

Love can be understood only "from the inside," as a language can be understood only by someone who speaks it, as a world can be understood only by someone who lives in it.

The world speaks of holy things in the only language it knows, which is worldly language.

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."

The simplicities of natural laws arise through the complexities of the language we use for their expression.

Language makes infinite use of finite media.

Language is much closer to film than painting is.

Besides language and music, it [mathematics] is one of the primary manifestations of the free creative power of the human mind, and it is the universal organ for world understanding through theoretical construction. Mathematics must therefore remain an essential element of the knowledge and abilities which we have to teach, of the culture we have to transmit, to the next generation.

Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.

The English language has a deceptive air of simplicity; so have some little frocks; but they are both not the kind of thing you can run up in half an hour with a machine.

Language is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines.

Many a poem is marred by a superfluous verse.

The finest words in the world are only vain sounds if you can't understand them. The best sentence? The shortest.

Words in prose ought to express the intended meaning; if they attract attention to themselves, it is a fault; in the very best styles you read page after page without noticing the medium. Works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more purely imaginative they are, the more necessary it is to be plain.

The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real, for a moment at least, that long magic moment before we wake.

Prune what is turgid, elevate what is commonplace, arrange what is disorderly, introduce rhythm where the language is harsh, modify where it is too absolute.

So far no one had had enough courage and intelligence to reveal me to my dear Germans. My problems are new, my psychological horizon frighteningly comprehensive, my language bold and clear; there may well be no books written in German which are richer in ideas and more independent than mine.

If you're prepared to invest in a company, then you ought to be able to explain why in simple language that a fifth grader could understand, and quickly enough so the fifth grader won't get bored.

At the beginning of their careers many writers have a need to overwrite. They choose carefully turned-out phrases; they want to impress their readers with their large vocabularies. By the excesses of their language, these young men and women try to hide their sense of inexperience. With maturity the writer becomes more secure in his ideas. He finds his real tone and develops a simple and effective style.

Fie, fie upon her! _x000D_ _x000D_ There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, _x000D_ _x000D_ Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out _x000D_ _x000D_ At every joint and motive of her body.

We read off the many signals that our companions' clothes transmit to us in every social encounter. In this way, clothing is as much a part of human body language as gestures, facial expressions and postures.Even those people who insist that they despise attention to clothing, and dress as casually as possible, are making quite specific comments on their social roles and their attitudes towards the culture in which they live.