2,489 Quotes About Language

The vulgar Turk is very different from what is spoken at court, 'tis as ridiculous to make use of the expressions commonly used in speaking to a great man or lady, as it would be to talk broad Yorkshire or Somershetshire in the drawing room.

In France the most often used word is “connerie,” which means “bullshit,” and in America it’s hands-down “awesome,” which has replaced “incredible,” “good,” and even “just OK.” Pretty much everything that isn’t terrible is awesome in America now.

...every language has annoyances and illogical rules, as well as sensible beauty.

The true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs.

For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.

This is the nature of social existence. We talk in order to impose limits, to contain the world in a narrow frame.

I had rather my son should learn in a tan-house to speak, than in the schools to prate.

Language is a democratic enterprise.

The power of language transcends the need for survival, and the components of the human brain required for it are too complex and advanced to have developed over time.