English Language Quotes

• Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

  William Penn

  Writing, Language Words, Plain Language

  William Penn (1792). “Fruits of Solitude: In Reflections and Maxims Relating to the Conduct of Human Life”, p.130

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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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• 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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  Never make fun of someone who speaks broken English. It means they know another language.

  H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

  Fun, Mean, Broken

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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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• The English language was carefully, carefully cobbled together by three blind dudes and a German dictionary

  Dave Kellett

  Together, Three, Brilliant

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• High thoughts must have high language.

  Aristophanes

  Book, Communication, Beer

  Aristophanes (1962). “Four comedies”

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• If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

  Nelson Mandela

  Leadership, Travel, Crazy

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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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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• 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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• The English language is nobody's special property.

  Derek Walcott

  Special, Language, Property

  "Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, Eighth Series". Book edited by George Plimpton, 1988.

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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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• 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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• Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Running, Communication, Inspiration

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• Language is the dress of thought.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Learning, Thinking

  Lives of the English Poets "Cowley" (1779 - 1781)

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

  George Orwell

  Communication, Joints, Language

  George Orwell (1986). “The complete works of George Orwell”

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• Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

  Henry James

  Beautiful, Summer, Time

  Quoted in Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance (1934)

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• Man is a creature who lives not upon bread alone, but primarily by catchwords.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Men, Vocabulary, Bread

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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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• A man of true science... thinks, that by mouthing hard words, he proves that he understands hard things.

  Herman Melville

  Communication, Men, Thinking

  "White-Jacket" by Herman Melville, (Ch. 64), 1850.

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• We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.

  Abigail Adams

  Communication, Language Words, Diversity

  Abigail Adams, John Adams, L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Mary-Jo Kline (1975). “The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784”, p.80, UPNE

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• 'I am' is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that 'I do' is the longest sentence?

  George Carlin

  Funny, Marriage, Sarcastic

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• The word 'good' has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Grandmother, Men, Good Man

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• He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Book, Communication, Humor

  Abraham Lincoln (1992). “The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln”, Plume

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• If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.

  Doug Larson

  Time, Flower, Humorous

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