Language Quotes

“A definition is the enclosing of a wilderness of idea within a wall of words.”

“A language dies when nobody speaks it anymore.”

“The first step in making a branch of science autonomous is to fix its language.”

“In my experience, 'nothing' is a word that should be thrown out of the dictionary.”

“Every good writer has much idiom; it is the life and spirit of language.”

“Bilingualism is a special way of being in the world.”

“Phonetics is the indispensable foundation of all study of language.”

“The unconscious is structured like a language.”

“We have to be a country that is not afraid of its own languages. We are a country of two official languages, and we should be proud of it.”

“First words must have an intense meaning for a child. They must be part of his being.”

“The vernacular, in which the minimum of attention is paid to speech, is the most systematic and regular form of language.”

“The strange limitations of the Chinese language have been more insisted upon than they deserve.”

“A poorly chosen word can spoil the best of feelings.”

“The problem with a lot of languages is they have a lot of features, but they're not very well integrated.”

“The word and the image are one.”

“The neutral is that which neutralizes.”

“She had always wanted words, she loved them, grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape.”

“The finest language is mostly made up of simple, unimposing words.”

“Poetry is a language that tells us, through a more or less emotional reaction, something that cannot be said.”

“I speak Catalan in private.”