--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Try not to live in a linguistic slum." description: "\"Try not to live in a linguistic slum.\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1b/susan-sontag-332_language_try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum-206_2067257.jpg" --- # Try not to live in a linguistic slum. ![“Try not to live in a linguistic slum.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1b/susan-sontag-332_language_try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum-206_2067257.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1b/susan-sontag-332_language_try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum-206_2067257.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1b/susan-sontag-332_language_try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum-206_2067257.jpg) > “Try not to live in a linguistic slum.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Avoid living in a limited, impoverished linguistic environment; seek richer expression. **In simple terms:** Don’t confine yourself to poor language. Key Takeaway Enrich your language use. Themes language culture expression Mood intellectual inspirational Type thoughtful curious When to use this quote - academic writing - public speaking - literary criticism Key Concepts semantic richness creative writing Questions to Reflect On - How does language shape thought? - What steps expand your vocabulary? A Different Perspective Changing language habits is challenging. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Language](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/language/) [Linguistic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/linguistic/) [Linguistic Slum](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/linguistic-slum-3973284/) [Live Linguistic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/live-linguistic-3973285/) [Slum](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/slum/) [Slums](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/slums/) [Try Live](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/try-live/) [Trying](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/trying/) ## Related quotes > [When I was 16, I made some little 35mm documentaries about the poor in London. I went round Notting Hill, which was a real…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-suchet/when-i-was-16-i-made-some-little-35mm-documentaries-about-the-poor-in/) [David Suchet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-suchet/) > [One chronicler writes of an area of India during the end of the 20th century: Almost no-one in this slum was poor by Indian…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-boo/one-chronicler-writes-of-an-area-of-india-during-the-end-of-the-20th/) [Katherine Boo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-boo/) > [If you've seen one city slum, you've seen them all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/spiro-t-agnew/if-you-ve-seen-one-city-slum-you-ve-seen-them-all/) [Spiro T. Agnew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/spiro-t-agnew/) > [You can look at a slum or a peasant village, but it is only by entering into the world - by living in it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penny-lernoux/you-can-look-at-a-slum-or-a-peasant-village-but-it-is-only-by/) [Penny Lernoux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penny-lernoux/) > [Several generations of slum environment will produce a slum heredity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albion-fellows-bacon/several-generations-of-slum-environment-will-produce-a-slum-heredity/) [Albion Fellows Bacon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albion-fellows-bacon/) > [I haven't got a heart: only the former site of one, with a monument there to say that it has been removed and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/t-e-lawrence/i-haven-t-got-a-heart-only-the-former-site-of-one-with-a-monument/) [T. E. Lawrence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/t-e-lawrence/) > [The first Parikrma school started in a slum where there were 70,000 people living below the poverty line. Our first school was on a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shukla-bose/the-first-parikrma-school-started-in-a-slum-where-there-were-70-000/) [Shukla Bose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shukla-bose/) > [The daily lesson of slum life, visualised, reiterated, of low standards, vile living, obscenity, profanity, impurity, is bound tobe dwarfing and debasing to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albion-fellows-bacon/the-daily-lesson-of-slum-life-visualised-reiterated-of-low-standards/) [Albion Fellows Bacon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albion-fellows-bacon/) > [Whereas the slums in Hamburg are the slums of its sailors, Berlin is a big slum.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kathy-acker/whereas-the-slums-in-hamburg-are-the-slums-of-its-sailors-berlin-is-a/) [Kathy Acker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kathy-acker/) > [You can be slum-born and slum-bred and still achieve something worth while; but it is a stupid inverted snobbishness to be proud of it.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katharine-fullerton-gerould/you-can-be-slum-born-and-slum-bred-and-still-achieve-something-worth/) [Katharine Fullerton Gerould](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katharine-fullerton-gerould/) > [Slumdog' was my first movie, and I had never been to India before - I was just a teenager in the U.K. with my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dev-patel/slumdog-was-my-first-movie-and-i-had-never-been-to-india-before-i-was/) [Dev Patel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dev-patel/) > [One of the saddest sights of the slums is to see the thrifty wife of the working man, with her rosy brood of children,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albion-fellows-bacon/one-of-the-saddest-sights-of-the-slums-is-to-see-the-thrifty-wife-of/) [Albion Fellows Bacon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albion-fellows-bacon/) > [Hate builds up from the childhood when your world was a slum, but you haven't got the right to blow it to kingdom come.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-davies/hate-builds-up-from-the-childhood-when-your-world-was-a-slum-but-you/) [Ray Davies](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-davies/) > [Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/langston-hughes/misery-is-when-you-heard-on-the-radio-that-the-neighborhood-you-live/) [Langston Hughes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/langston-hughes/) > [The slum is the measure of civilization.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-slum-is-the-measure-of-civilization/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. 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The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Language quotes > [I put myself in the student's place and remember the frustrations, doubts, determination, and desires I felt when I was going through the initial…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ted-martinez/i-put-myself-in-the-student-s-place-and-remember-the-frustrations/) [Ted Martinez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ted-martinez/) > [Usually male directors have to use foul language to get the job done. 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Maybe it's his first time around.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-simon/a-man-walks-down-the-street-it-s-a-street-in-a-strange-world-maybe-it/) [Paul Simon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-simon/) > [“I only have two words to say More or Less”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timbur/i-only-have-two-words-to-say-more-or-less/) [TimBur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timbur/) > [It's like saying French shouldn't be taught because you don't understand it because it's new. Shakespeare is just like learning a new, exciting language.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-barnett/it-s-like-saying-french-shouldn-t-be-taught-because-you-don-t/) [Samuel Barnett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-barnett/) > [I am attracted to looking at the different things language can mean even in one sometimes quite ordinary utterance. 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I ran out of words.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/raghib-clitso/you-re-beautiful-cute-pretty-gorgeous-and-fuck-i-ran-out-of-words/) [Raghib Clitso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/raghib-clitso/) > [The world has a soul and whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of many things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/the-world-has-a-soul-and-whoever-understands-that-soul-can-also/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [“The words for what I want to say right now don't exist. Everything sounds…so cliché.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shelly-crane/the-words-for-what-i-want-to-say-right-now-don-t-exist-everything/) [Shelly Crane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shelly-crane/) > [A man cannot speak but he judges himself. 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(To action little, less to words inclinded.)”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/horace/finxerunt-animi-raro-et-perpauca-loquentis-to-action-little-less-to/) [Horace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/horace/) > [For comedy action, I must know the language.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sammo-hung/for-comedy-action-i-must-know-the-language/) [Sammo Hung](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sammo-hung/) [Browse all 21,951 Language quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/language/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Try not to live in a linguistic slum.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Language" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1b/susan-sontag-332_language_try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum-206_2067257.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1b/susan-sontag-332_language_try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum-206_2067257.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1b/susan-sontag-332_language_try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum-206_2067257.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Try not to live in a linguistic slum.” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Susan Sontag", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Try not to live in a...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/try-not-to-live-in-a-linguistic-slum/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```