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Quotes

History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.

—Theodor Adorno, c. 1946

It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.

—Thomas Hardy, 1874

Methinks the human method of expression by sound of tongue is very elementary and ought to be substituted for some ingenious invention which should be able to give vent to at least six coherent sentences at once.

—Virginia Woolf, 1899

I live by good soup, and not on fine language.

—Molière, 1672

Making 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, 1962

My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin.

—Karl Kraus, c. 1910

Writing cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.

—The Book of Changes, c. 350 BC

We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

—John Locke, 1690

God 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

In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.

—Voltaire, 1764

Unexemplary words and unfounded doctrines are avoided by the noble person. Why utter them?

—Dong Zhongshu, c. 120 BC

Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?

—Marcel Marceau, 1958

Words pay no debts.

—William Shakespeare, 1601