Philosophy Quote by Surendranath Dasgupta

A major difficulty in translation is that a word in one language seldom has a precise equivalent in another one.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Philosophers can never hope finally to formulate these metaphysical first principles. Weakness of insight and deficiencies of language stand in the way inexorably. Words…

— Alfred North Whitehead

Translation presents not merely a paradigm but the utmost case of engaged literary interpretation

— John Felstiner

“A crassly arbitrary method can be avoided only when it is accepted that etymological statements are historical and not authoritative and that semantic statements…

— James Barr

“Virtually anything can be translated—“X cannot be translated” usually means nothing more exciting than “We have a word, X, that you need three or…

— Robert Lane Greene

“language is no deus ex machina to account for philosophy.”

— Randall Collins

The enterprise of describing something in language that has never been described before is a very difficult thing to do. When you decide to…

— Gao Xingjian

“To translate a text is to be conducted into its mysteries in a way that no mere act of reading—however conscientious or frequent—makes possible.…

— David Bentley Hart

All translation is a compromise - the effort to be literal and the effort to be idiomatic.

— Benjamin Jowett

“Translation can never do more than the approximate,so we shall, at least, be gloriously inaccurate.”

— Karen Healey

“Being made up of distinctions, language finds it almost impossible to express undifferentiation.”

— René Girard

Common European thought is the fruit of the immense toil of translators. Without translators, Europe would not exist; translators are more important than members…

— Milan Kundera