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. 620Quotes
A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.
—Arthur Miller, 1961History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.
—Theodor Adorno, c. 1946Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.
—Samuel Johnson, 1780Newspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever lays one down without a feeling of disappointment.
—Charles Lamb, 1833Writing cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.
—The Book of Changes, c. 350 BCLanguage 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, 1817We 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, 1690Slang 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, 1859Words pay no debts.
—William Shakespeare, 1601I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.
—Samuel Johnson, 1773The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.
—Winston Churchill, 1943