Language Quotes

5358 quotes by 3063 authors

Words slip into a language the way white-green vines slide between slats in a fence. — Tim Seibles
My language! heavens!I am the best of them that speak this speech. Were I but where 'tis spoken. — William Shakespeare
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue. — William Shakespeare
Ay, is it not a language I speak? — William Shakespeare
Every American child should grow up knowing a second language, preferably English. — Mignon McLaughlin
Human society, the world, and the whole of mankind is to be found in the alphabet. — Victor Hugo
I know how to say 'no' in twelve languages. That's enough for a woman. — Sophia Loren
What words say does not last. The words last. Because words are always the same, and what they say is never the same. — Antonio Porchia
Language is the most imperfect and expensive means yet discovered for communicating thought. — William James
He who does not know foreign languages does not know anything about his own. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is a certain age at which a child looks at you in all earnestness and delivers a long, pleased speech in all the true… — Annie Dillard
Language is by its very nature a communal thing; that is, it expresses never the exact thing but a compromise - that which is common… — Thomas Ernest Hulme
The sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one language. — Ezra Pound
Bilingualism is for me the fundamental problem of linguistics. — Roman Jakobson
I have never known what is Arabic or English, or which one was really mine beyond any doubt. What I do know, however, is that… — Edward Said
We do not for example say that the person has a perfect knowledge of some language L similar to English but still different from it.… — Noam Chomsky
Grasp the subject, the words will follow. — Cato the Elder
Absolutely nothing is so important for a nation's culture as its language. — Wilhelm von Humboldt
There sighs, lamentations and loud wailings resounded through the starless air, so that at first it made me weep; strange tongues, horrible language, words of… — Dante Alighieri
Why would you have a language that is not theoretically exciting? Because it's very useful. — Rob Pike

Who Wrote These Language Quotes

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