Language Quotes

5358 quotes by 3063 authors

Any translation which intends to perform a transmitting function cannot transmit anything but information-hence, something inessential. This is the hallmark of bad translations. — Walter Benjamin
Translations are a partial and precious documentation of the changes the text suffers. — Jorge Luis Borges
Translation is at best an echo. — George Henry Borrow
There are very deep and restrictive principles that determine the nature of human language and are rooted in the specific character of the human mind — Noam Chomsky
Language is an art, like brewing or baking.... It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learnt. — Charles Darwin
Of all social institutions language is least amenable to initiative. It blends with the life of society, and the latter, inert by nature, is a… — Ferdinand de Saussure
Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise. — Ferdinand de Saussure
Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us; if we could learn them in some other way, we should not live. — Arthur Schopenhauer
I do not hesitate to read. all good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable-any real insight or broad human… — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Translation presents not merely a paradigm but the utmost case of engaged literary interpretation — Unknown Author
The process of translating comprises in its essence the whole secret of human understanding of the world and of social communication. — Hans-Georg Gadamer
There are few efforts more conducive to humility than that of the translator trying to communicate an incommunicable beauty. Yet, unless we do try, something… — Edith Hamilton
A language does not become fixed. The human intellect is always on the march, or, if you prefer, in movement, and languages with it. — Victor Hugo
All translation is a compromise - the effort to be literal and the effort to be idiomatic. — Benjamin Jowett
It is neither the best nor the worst things in a book that defy translation. — Friedrich Nietzsche
The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. — George Orwell
Human language is local and changeable, and is therefore incapable of being used as the means of unchangeable and universal information. — Thomas Paine
As far as modern writing is concerned, it is rarely rewarding to translate it, although it might be easy. Translation is very much like copying… — Boris Pasternak
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude… — Steven Pinker
A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations. — Ezra Pound

Who Wrote These Language Quotes

3,063 authors contributed a total of 5,358 Language Quotes, led by these top contributors: