History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.
—Theodor Adorno, c. 1946Quotes
Language is the armory of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1817Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1915Words pay no debts.
—William Shakespeare, 1601Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.
—Jane Austen, 1818God never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make the message clear for them.
—The Qur’an, c. 620How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.
—Thomas Hardy, 1874The chief merit of language is clearness, and we know that nothing detracts so much from this as do unfamiliar terms.
—Galen, c. 175The only authors whom I acknowledge as American are the journalists. They indeed are not great writers, but they speak the language of their countrymen, and make themselves heard by them.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCMy language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin.
—Karl Kraus, c. 1910Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.
—Benjamin Franklin, c. 1732