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Words and Language Quotes and Quotations
 'twas bryllig and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths out grabe.  A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket. Language is the Rubicon that divides man from beast. Dialect words - those terrible marks of the beast to the truly genteel. Eloquence is the language of nature, and cannot be learned in the schools; but rhetoric is the creature of art, which he who feels least will most excel in. For words, like Nature, half reveal And half conceal the Soul within. He multiplieth words without knowledge. - Bible If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. - Bible Languages are the pedigree of nations. Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in few words. - Bible Letter-writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company. Man is a creature who lives not upon bread alone, but principally by catch words. Many terms which have now dropped out of favour will be revived, and those that are at present respectable, will drop out, if useage so choose with whom resides the decision and the judgment and the code of speech. - Horace Numbers constitute the only universal language. Soft words are hard arguments. Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons. The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech. The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for. The art of translation lies less in knowing the other language than in knowing your own. The two most beautiful words in the English language are "cheque enclosed". The medium is the message. The stroke of the whip maketh marks in the flesh; but the stroke of the tongue breaketh the bones. Many have fallen by the edge of the sword; but not so many as have fallen by the tongue. The thoughtless are rarely wordless. We must have a better word than "prefabricated", why not "ready-made"? We must think things not words, or at least we must constantly translate our words into the facts for which they stand, if we are to keep to the real and the true. Words are the small change of thought. Words should be weighed and not counted. Since the concepts people live by are derived only from perceptions and from language and since the perceptions are received and interpreted only in light of earlier concepts, man comes pretty close to living in a house that language built. If a conceptual distinction is to be made, the machinery for making it ought to show itself in language. If a distinction cannot be made in language, it cannot be made conceptually. Often I am struck in amazement about a word: I suddenly realize that the complete arbitrariness of our language is but a part of the arbitrariness of our own world in general. Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech. Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye. Who does not know another language, does not know his own. - Goethe To me, the term 'middle-class' connotes a safe, comfortable, middle-of-the road policy. Above all, our language is 'middle-class' in the middle of our road. To drive it to one side or the other or even off the road, is the noblest task of the future. Similes are like songs of love: They much describe, they nothing prove. Words are the physicians of a mind diseased. A language is a dialect with its own army and navy. 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.' 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.' The word is half his that speaks, and half his that hears it. A single word often betrays a great design. Words once spoken, can never be recalled. Some words are like the old Roman galleys; large-scaled and ponderous. They sit low in the water even when their cargo is light. It's as interesting and as difficult to say a thing well as to paint it. There is the art of lines and colours, but the art of words exists too, and will never be less important. The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make clear. There is only one way to degrade mankind permanently and that is to destroy language. The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe. The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. More than kisses, letters mingle souls. I wonder what language truck drivers are using, now that everyone is using theirs? The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through. England and America are two countries separated by the same language. The Englishman loves to roll his tongue around the word, 'extraordinary'. It so pleases him that he is reluctant to finish the sound which goes on into harmonics and overtones. The North American publisher is likewise inclined. Words are feminine; deeds are masculine. Let it not be said that I have said nothing new. The arrangement of the material is new. When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place. - Goethe Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact - it is silence which isolates. In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer. Like stones, words are laborious and unforgiving, and the fitting of them together, like the fitting of stones, demands great patience and strength of purpose and particular skill. Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree. One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness. The downtrodden, who are the great creators of slang, hurl pithiness and colour at poverty and oppression. Slang is language which takes off its coat, spits on its hands - and goes to work. Man's command of the language is most important. Next to kissing, it's the most exciting form of communication. "Plain English" - everybody loves it, demands it - from the other fellow. Words are as recalcitrant as circus animals, and the unskilled trainer can crack his whip at them in vain. The magic of the tongue is the most dangerous of all spells. A word after a word after a word is power. You have to fall in love with hanging around words. Language is the armoury of the human mind; and at once contains the trophies of its past, and the weapons of its future conquests. Everyone hears only what he understands. - Goethe When I feel inclined to read poetry, I take down my dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as the poetry of sentences. Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee. True eloquence consists of saying all that should be, not all that could be, said. Even if language is a living evolving organism, we don't have to embrace all the changes that occur during our lifetimes. If language is so alive, it can get sick. Our language, one of our most precious natural resources, deserves at least as much protection as our woodlands, streams and whooping cranes. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. - Bible Language is an inventory of human experience. Change is legitimate and inevitable, for our language is a mighty river, picking up silt and flotsam here and discarding it there, but growing ever wider and richer. The grossest thing in our gross national product today is our language. It is suffering from inflation. A word has its use, Or, like a man, it will soon have a grave. No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest. Most people have to talk so they won't hear. Every utterance is an event, and no two events are precisely alike. The extreme view, therefore, is that no word ever means the same thing twice. It is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. If you can teach me a new word, I'll walk all the way to China to get it. I have always suspected that correctness is the last refuge of those who have nothing to say. 
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