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Language quotes

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“He wanted to cry quietly but not for himself: for the words, so beautiful and sad, like music.” James Joyce, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” - 1916

“You do not immortalize the lost by writing about them. Language buries, but does not resurrect.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“A definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words.” Samuel Butler, “The Note-Books of Samuel Butler” - 1912

“Teach me to speak the language of men.” Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes” - 1912

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” - 1921

“Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth.” Margaret Atwood, “The Blind Assassin” - 2000

“When I use a word . . . it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” Lewis Carroll, “Through the Looking-Glass” - 1871

“A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art.” Henry David Thoreau, “Walden” - 1854

“I again realized that we were not different people with separate languages; we were one people, with different tongues.” Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“language . . . is the parent, and not the child, of thought.” Oscar Wilde, “Intentions” - 1891

“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet” - 1597

“Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” - 1946

“The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“The proper name for the thing is modesty; but as we live in an age of prejudice and must not call things by their right names, we will yield to a more modern nomenclature and call it dignity.” G. K. Chesterton, “What's Wrong with the World” - 1910

“But remember, language is man’s way of communication with other people and it is language alone which separates him from the lower animals.” Maya Angelou, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” - 1969

“My hours of leisure I spent in reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of books; and when I was ashore, in observing the manners and dispositions of the people, as well as learning their language;...” Jonathan Swift, “Gulliver's Travels” - 1726

“If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.” Confucius, “Analects”

“Only the language of civilized people may be spoken, thus no German.” Anne Frank, “The Diary of a Young Girl” - 1947

“I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things.” Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist” - 1988

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’—that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that...” John Steinbeck, “East of Eden” - 1952

“DICTIONARY, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1906

“an unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.” Edith Wharton, “The Age of Innocence” - 1920

“Being in a foreign country means walking a tightrope high above the ground without the net afforded a person by the country where he has his family, colleagues, and friends, and where he can easily say what he has to say in a language he has...” Milan Kundera, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” - 1984

“Language!—the blood of the soul, Sir! into which our thoughts run and out of which they grow!” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table” - 1860

“I learned that pilgrims from every land—every color, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike—all snored in the same language.” Malcolm X, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” - 1965

Related topics

words truth music understanding meaning politics soul men death modesty speech success naming reading family world freedom humanity communication dignity

Related authors

George Orwell (2)
William Shakespeare (1)
Oscar Wilde (1)
James Joyce (1)
Lewis Carroll (1)
John Green (1)
Henry David Thoreau (1)
G. K. Chesterton (1)
Nelson Mandela (1)
Maya Angelou (1)
Paulo Coelho (1)
Jonathan Swift (1)
Malcolm X (1)
Confucius (1)
Edith Wharton (1)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1)
Samuel Butler (1)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)
John Steinbeck (1)

Related sources

Romeo and Juliet (1)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1)
Politics and the English Language (1)
1984 (1)
The Fault in Our Stars (1)
What's Wrong with the World (1)
Long Walk to Freedom (1)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1)
The Alchemist (1)
Gulliver's Travels (1)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1)
Analects (1)
The Age of Innocence (1)
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1)
Tarzan of the Apes (1)
The Devil's Dictionary (1)
East of Eden (1)
The Diary of a Young Girl (1)
The Blind Assassin (1)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1)