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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• 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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• 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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• English poetry begins whenever we decide to say the modern English language begins, and it extends as far as we decide to say that the English language extends.

  James Fenton

  Language, Modern, English Poetry

  2002 An Introduction to English Poetry.

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• The most important words in the English language are not 'I love you' but 'it's benign.'

  Woody Allen

  Love You, Important, Language

  Deconstructing Harry, www.imdb.com. 1997.

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• The most beautiful words in the English language are 'not guilty'.

  Maxim Gorky

  Beautiful, Money, Business

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• More has been screwed up on the battlefield and misunderstood in the Pentagon because of a lack of understanding of the English language than any other single factor.

  John W. Vessey, Jr.

  Understanding, Misunderstood, Language

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• My opposition to Interviews lies in the fact that offhand answers have little value or grace of expression, and that such oral give and take helps to perpetuate the decline of the English language.

  James Thurber

  Lying, Expression, Giving

  James Thurber (1990). “Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself”

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• Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible as baseball in Italian.

  H. L. Mencken

  Music, Baseball, Italian

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• Every Englishman is an average Englishman: it is a national characteristic.

  E. M. Delafield

  Average, Language, Characteristics

  E. M. Delafield (2015). “The Collected Works of E. M. Delafield (Illustrated): The Provincial Lady Series, Zella Sees Herself, The War-Workers, Consequences, Gay Life, The Heel of Achilles, Humbug, Messalina of the Suburbs (Including Short Stories and Plays)”, p.2680, e-artnow

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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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• My least favorite phrase in the English language is 'I don't care.'

  James Caan

  Phrases, Care, Language

  "James Caan: What I've Learned". Interview with Ross Johnson, www.esquire.com. January 29, 2007.

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• Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil; for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Sarcastic, Sarcasm, Long

  Thomas Carlyle (1834). “Fraser's Magazine”, p.195

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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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• 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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• 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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• I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sorry, Communication, Tongue

  In James Boswell 'Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides' (1785) 18 September 1773

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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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• The English language has a deceptive air of simplicity; so have some little frocks; but they are both not the kind of thing you can run up in half an hour with a machine.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Running, Writing, Hype

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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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• 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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• 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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• The way I see it is, I am a boon to the English language.

  George W. Bush

  Way, Language, Boon

  "Talking Points: Bush Scores Big With the Press". www.foxnews.com. March 30, 2001.

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