In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
—Voltaire, 1764Quotes
I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.
—Xenocrates, c. 350 BCAnyone who doesn’t know foreign languages knows nothing of his own.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1821Language is the house of being. In its home human beings dwell. Those who think and those who create with words are the guardians of this home.
—Martin Heidegger, 1949The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.
—Winston Churchill, 1943Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?
—Alfred Hitchcock, 1962Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height.
—E.M. Forster, 1910Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCSlang is as old as speech and the congregating together of people in cities. It is the result of crowding and excitement and artificial life.
—John Camden Hotten, 1859Unexemplary words and unfounded doctrines are avoided by the noble person. Why utter them?
—Dong Zhongshu, c. 120 BCNo one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
—Bertrand Russell, 1961Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.
—George Orwell, 1944God never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make the message clear for them.
—The Qur’an, c. 620