52 Quotes by Edward Sapir

The fact of the matter is that the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group.

Were a language ever completely “grammatical” it would be a perfect engine of conceptual expression. Unfortunately, or luckily, no language is tyrannically consistent. All grammars leak.

In a sense, every form of expression is imposed upon one by social factors, one’s own language above all.

Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.

The psychology of a language which, in one way or another, is imposed upon one because of factors beyond one’s control, is very different from the psychology of a language which one accepts of one’s free will.

Fashion is custom in the guise of departure from custom.

Human beings do not wish to be modest; they want to be as expressive – that is, as immodest – as fear allows; fashion helps them solve that paradoxical problem.