English Language Quotes

• 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

  Business, Communication, Past

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1840). “The Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Prose and Verse: Complete in One Volume”, p.313

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• A different language is a different vision of life.

  Federico Fellini

  Life, Work, Communication

  Federico Fellini, Bert Cardullo (2006). “Federico Fellini: Interviews”, p.180, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• FEAR is an acronym in the English language for 'False Evidence Appearing Real'.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Fear, Real, Acronyms

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• Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne.

  Quentin Crisp

  Truth, Communication, Diplomatic Relations

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• I speak two languages, Body and English.

  Mae West

  Two, Body, Language

  "Body Language Pocketbook". Book by Max A. Eggert (p. 17), September 1, 2012.

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• Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all.

  Walt Whitman

  Communication, Race, Growth

  Walt Whitman (2003). “The Portable Walt Whitman”, p.557, Penguin

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• 

  Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Relationship, Positive

  Mark Twain (2015). “Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend”, p.18, St. Martin's Press

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• In the English language there are orphans and widows, but there is no word for the parents who loses a child.

  Jodi Picoult

  Sad, Children, Parent

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper: A Novel”, p.493, Simon and Schuster

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• In English every word can be verbed.

  Alan Perlis

  Language, Programming Languages

  "Epigrams on Programming". ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17 (9), pp. 7-13, pu.inf.uni-tuebingen.de. September 1982.

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• When all is said and done, more is said than done.

  Lou Holtz

  Motivational, Football, College

  Twitter post from Aug 22, 2011

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• Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.

  Edward R. Murrow

  Mistake, Problem Solving, Obligation

  Edward R. Murrow (1967). “In Search of Light: The Broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow, 1938-1961”

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• My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets — no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!

  Philip Roth

  Communication, Ducks, Bombs

  "Portnoy's Complaint". Book by Philip Roth, 1969.

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• Every American child should grow up knowing a second language, preferably English.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Children, Growing Up, Knowing

  Mignon McLaughlin (2014). “Aperçus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin”, p.34, BookBaby

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• We should have a great 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

  Inspirational, Philosophical, Taken

  John Locke (1825). “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding: An analysis of Mr. Locke's Doctrine of ideas .... A defense of Mr. Locke's Opinion concerning personal identity .... A treatise on the conduct of the understanding. Some thoughts concerning reading and study for a gentleman. Elements of natural philosophy. A new method of a common place book. Extracted from the author's works. With a life of the author”

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• Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.

  Rita Mae Brown

  Inspiration, Learning, People

  Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.47, Bantam

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• English grammar is so complex and confusing for the one very simple reason that its rules and terminology are based on Latin, a language with which it has precious little in common.

  Bill Bryson

  Latin, Simple, English Grammar

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• Verbing weirds language.

  Bill Watterson

  Language, Comic

  "Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat". Book by Bill Watterson, October 1994.

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• Making English grammar conform to Latin rules is like asking people to play baseball using the rules of football.

  Bill Bryson

  Baseball, Football, Latin

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• When I read some of the rules for speaking and writing the English language correctly, I think any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Writing, Thinking, Mind

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.213, Courier Corporation

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• Words, too, have genuine substance -- mass and weight and specific gravity.

  Tim O'Brien

  Substance, Weight, Gravity

  Tim O'Brien (2011). “Tomcat in Love”, p.46, Broadway Books

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• Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.

  Carl Sandburg

  Work, Writing, Carpe Diem

  In New York Times 13 Feb. 1959, p. 21

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• The Ancient Mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called The Old Sailor.

  Samuel Butler

  Taken, Sailor, Ancient

  Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.49, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

  Booker T. Washington

  Communication, Vocabulary, Pockets

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• The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

  George Eliot

  Writing, Simple, Language Words

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• The English language is rather like a monster accordion, stretchable at the whim of the editor, compressible ad lib.

  Robert Burchfield

  Communication, Editors, Monsters

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