Language Quotes

5358 quotes by 3063 authors

What is a nation without a mother tongue? — Jack Edwards
An immune system of enormous complexity is present in all vertebrate animals. When we place a population of lymphocytes from such an animal in appropriate… — Niels Kaj Jerne
By a generative grammar I mean simply a system of rules that in some explicit and well-defined way assigns structural descriptions to sentences. Obviously, every… — Noam Chomsky
Hence, a generative grammar must be a system of rules that can iterate to generate an indefinitely large number of structures. This system of rules… — Noam Chomsky
I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of the earth, and that things are the sons… — Samuel Johnson
If it were possible to transfer the methods of physical or of biological science directly to the study of man, the transfer would long ago… — Unknown Author
It is clear, from these considerations, that the three methods of classifying mankind-that according to physical characters, according to language, and according to culture-all reflect… — Franz Boas
To excavate is to open a book written in the language that the centuries have spoken into the earth. — Unknown Author
We are a spectacular, splendid manifestation of life. We have language. . . . We have affection. We have genes for usefulness, and usefulness is… — Lewis Thomas
When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. — Niels Bohr
It's kind of pathetic actually that we are all sitting here talking about Forth. It is not the wave of the future. It's never been… — Charles Moore
C has all the expressive power of two dixie cups and a string. — Jamie Zawinski
APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. — Edsger Dijkstra
A thing well said will be wit in all languages. — John Dryden
Art is an extension of language - an expression of sensations too subtle for words. — Robert Henri
Because everyone uses language to talk, everyone thinks he can talk about language. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
By such innovations are languages enriched, when the words are adopted by the multitude, and naturalized by custom. — Miguel de Cervantes
Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of language. — Samuel Johnson
Great men, like nature, use simple language. — Luc de Clapiers

Who Wrote These Language Quotes

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