Quotes about Language

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying.

Ever been kidnapped by a poet if i were a poet i'd kidnap you put you in my phrases and meter.

Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity.

Why then we should drop into poetry.

Before I got into politics, I wanted to be a missionary to people in the Middle East. I thought it would be better to speak with them in their own language.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

Nobody can motivate himself in a positive direction by continually using negative words.

We are all born with the power of speech, but we need grammar. Conscience, too, needs Revelation.

For each person there is a sentence—a series of words—which has the power to destroy them.

Nothing you can't spell will ever work.

What openings of providence do we wait for? We can neither expect to be transported into the heathen world without ordinary means, nor to be endowed with the gift of tongues, &c. when we arrive there. These would not be providential interpositions, but miraculous ones. Where a command exists nothing can be necessary to render it binding but a removal of those obstacles which render obedience impossible, and these are removed already.