Archive

Quotes

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

—The Book of Changes, c. 350 BC

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

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

Only 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, 1910

Every 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, 1780

I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.

—Xenocrates, c. 350 BC

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

It is impossible to translate the poets. Can you translate music?

—Voltaire, c. 1732

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

—Karl Kraus, c. 1910

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

—George Orwell, 1944

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921

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

Language 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, 1949