Quotes about Language

Words become low by the occasions to which they are applied, or the general character of them who use them; and the disgust which they produce arises from the revival of those images with which they are commonly united.

I am not yet so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

You must understand, young Hobbit, it takes a long time to say anything in Old Entish. And we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say.

Language has time as its element; all other media have space as their element.

The covenant language in the Bible is not cold, legal language, but relational language.

we must refuse to speak in sanitized clinical euphemisms like calling adulteries "affairs," fornication "dating," and perverts "partners" because God uses frank words for deplorable sin so we will feel its sickness without anesthesia.

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

If there are two definitive features of ancient Greek civilization, they are loquacity and competition.

Tragedy, then, is a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself, and of some amplitude; in language enriched by a variety of artistic devices appropriate to the several parts of the play; presented in the form of action, not narration; by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.

A fine thought in fine language is a most precious jewel, and should not be hid away, but be exposed for use and ornament.

It is not easy to express the inexpressible