2,489 Quotes About Language

In the contexts of religion and politics, words are not regarded as standing, rather inadequately, for things and events; on the contrary, things and events are regarded as particular illustrations of words.

Il linguaggio umano è, in fondo, il grande scandalo della natura: il linguaggio umano costringe a riconoscere una discontinuità immotivata e improvvisa tra gli esseri viventi.

Toxemia. A word that starts so harsh and ends so gently.

So many things in language can never be known or settled or explained, except by custom.

Betrug und Schönheit der Sprache bestehen darin, dass sie das ganze Universum zu ordnen scheint und uns zu der Annahme verführt, wir lebten in Anbetracht eines rationalen Raumes, einer möglichen Harmonie. Doch da Wörter uns von der Gegenwart distanzieren, weshalb wir niemals ganz der Realität der Dinge habhaft werden, machen sie die Vergangenheit zur absoluten Fiktion.

The physicist had no time to waste on a symbol; his concern was with what the symbol denoted. To the typesetter the symbol and its denotation were bound in an organic unity. There was a meaning to the symbol itself which only the typesetter could appreciate.

They’re not fat pigs; we’re mad scientists.

The rhythm of breath may have been our first language.

Zanzotto ricorda che la nonna dialettofona, la nonna popolana recitava a lui piccolo versi familiari del Tasso, e quell'armonia del toscano illustre filtrava nella sua coscienza come "una vera e propria droga fonica, sopra il continuum un po' selvatico della parlata dialettale".