Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
Numbers constitute the only universal language.
—Nathanael West
Language is an archeological vehicle… the language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history.
—Russell Hoban (1925–2011) American Novelist, Children’s Writer
The word of man is the most durable of all material.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
I have discovered that in every language and every country I have visited, there are no new stories. They’re all recycled. The same stressful thoughts arise in each mind one way or another, sooner or later.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Language… has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965) American Lutheran Theologian, Philosopher
An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Sweedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.
—Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Language was given us that we might say pleasant things to each other.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
If the announcer can produce the impression that he is a gentlemen, he may pronounce as he pleases.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence.
—George Steiner (1929–2020) American Critic, Scholar
Might, could, would—they are contemptible auxiliaries.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
You can’t write about people out of textbooks, and you can’t use jargon. You have to speak clearly and simply and purely in a language that a six-year-old child can understand; and yet have the meanings and the overtones of language, and the implications, that appeal to the highest intelligence.
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American Short-Story Writer, Novelist
All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar’s teeth.
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French Actor, Drama Theorist
Language as well as the faculty of speech, was the immediate gift of God.
—Noah Webster (1758–1843) American Lexicographer, Journalist, Author
There is no tracing the connection of ancient nations but by language; therefore I am always sorry when any language is lost, for languages are the pedigree of nations.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Poetry is all nouns and verbs.
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American Poet
A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language.
—Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French Philosopher, Psychoanalyst, Poet
The Creator has gifted the whole universe with language, but few are the hearts that can interpret it. Happy those to whom it is no foreign tongue, acquired imperfectly with care and pain, but rather a native language, learned unconsciously from the lips of the great mother.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Language is fossil poetry.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The theater, which is in no thing, but makes use of everything—gestures, sounds, words, screams, light, darkness—rediscovers itself at precisely the point where the mind requires a language to express its manifestations. To break through language in order to touch life is to create or recreate the theatre.
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French Actor, Drama Theorist
By such innovations are languages enriched, when the words are adopted by the multitude, and naturalized by custom.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
One can say of language that it is potentially the only human home, the only dwelling place that cannot be hostile to man.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
Poetry should help, not only to refine the language of the time, but to prevent it from changing too rapidly.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Language is like amber in its efficacy to circulate the electric spirit of truth, it is also like amber in embalming and preserving the relics of ancient wisdom, although one is not seldom puzzled to decipher its contents. Sometimes it locks up truths which were once well known, but which, in the course of ages, have passed out of sight and been forgotten. In other cases it holds the germs of truths, of which, though they were never plainly discerned, the genius of its framers caught a glimpse in a happy moment of divination.
—George Augustus Henry Sala (1828–95) British Journalist
Human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to make bears to dance when we long to move the stars.
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) French Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Felicity, not fluency of language, is a merit.
—Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–86) American Literary Critic
A mind enclosed in language is in prison.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English Novelist, Poet
The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
Command of English, spoken or written, ranks at the top in business. Our main product is words, so a knowledge of their meaning and spelling and pronunciation is imperative. If a man knows the language well, he can find out about all else.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
What would the science of language be without missions.
—Max Muller (1823–1900) German-Born British Philologist, Orientalist
Language is the Rubicon that divides man from beast.
—Max Muller (1823–1900) German-Born British Philologist, Orientalist
The common people do not accurately adapt their thoughts to objects; nor, secondly, do they accurately adapt their words to their thoughts; they do not mean to lie; but, taking no pains to be exact, they give you very false accounts. A great part of their language is proverbial; if anything rocks at all, they say it rocks like a cradle; and in this way they go on.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Mastery of language affords remarkable power.
—Frantz Fanon (1925–61) French-Martinique Psychoanalyst, Philosopher
Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
There is the fear, common to all English-only speakers, that the chief purpose of foreign languages is to make fun of us. Otherwise, you know, why not just come out and say it?
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b.1941) American Social Critic, Essayist
If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin they would never have found time to conquer the world.
—Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German Poet, Writer
The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but it is still nonsense.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The living language is like a cowpath: it is the creation of the cows themselves, who, having created it, follow it or depart from it according to their whims or their needs. From daily use, the path undergoes change. A cow is under no obligation to stay
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist
To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
Language is the apparel in which your thoughts parade before the public. Never clothe them in vulgar or shoddy attire.
—George W. Crane (1901–95) American Psychologist, Physician
Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Language is the archives of history.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher