English Language Quotes - Page 7

• Richard Burton had a tremendous passion for the English language, especially the spoken and written word

  Frank Bough

  Funny, Passion, Dumb

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• I'm one of those people that feels that Americans that shouldn't do Shakespeare... The rhythms of the English language and the mannerisms of the English speech seems to work effortlessly with William Shakespeare, but when Americans do it, something seems stuck.

  Nicolas Cage

  People, Speech, Language

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• These men of many nations must be taught American ways, the English language, and the right way to live.

  Henry Ford

  Men, Immigration, Way To Live

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• Saddam Hussein also challenged President Bush to a debate. The Butcher of Baghdad vs. the Butcher of the English language.

  Jay Leno

  President, Hussein, Baghdad

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• Political satire is a serious thing. In democratic newspapers throughout the world there are daily cartoons that often are not even funny, as is the case especially in many English-language newspapers. Instead, they contain a political message, and the artist takes full responsibility.

  Umberto Eco

  Responsibility, Artist, Political

  "Don't smile when you say that" by Umberto Eco, www.theguardian.com. June 21, 2002.

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• There seems to be an increasing awareness of something we Americans have known for some time - that the ten most dangerous words in the English language are "Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Helping, Language

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), Ronald Reagan (1991). “Ronald Reagan”

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• Deeds, not words shall speak me.

  John Fletcher

  Inspirational, Communication, Deeds

  Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, Mr. Seward, Mr. Theobald (Lewis), Sidrach Simpson (1750). “The Works of Mr. Francis Beaumont, and Mr. John Fletcher: In Ten Volumes. Collated with All the Former Editions, and Corrected. With Notes Critical and Explanatory”, p.404

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• Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.

  Aldous Huxley

  Language Words, Levels, Able

  Aldous Huxley (2002). “Complete Essays: 1939-1956”, Ivan R Dee

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• Somebody once said that the Irish derived the greatest benefit from the English language. They court it like a beautiful woman. They make it bray with donkey laughter, they fling it at the sky like paint pots full of rainbow colors.

  Malachy McCourt

  Beautiful, Laughter, Color

  Source: bigthink.com

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• The English language has about 450,000 commonly used words, but more may be needed. What to you call someone who has lost a sibling or had a miscarriage? Or a gay person whose partner has died? Or an elderly person who has lost every friend and relative? So many heartaches can't be found in the dictionary.

  Jeffrey Zaslow

  Sibling, Miscarriage, Gay

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• I like the word "indolence." It makes my laziness seem classy.

  Bernard Williams

  Humorous, Lazy Man, Profound

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• They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.

  William Shakespeare

  Communication, Language, Stolen

  'Love's Labour's Lost' (1595) act 5, sc. 1, l. [39]

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• There is a newly coined word in the English language for the moment when the person we're with whips out their BlackBerry or answers that cell phone, and all of a sudden we don't exist. The word is 'pizzled': it's a combination of puzzled and pissed off.

  Daniel Goleman

  Motivation, Inspiration, Technology

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• Christmas and the New Year are actually two holidays, so there is a plural, which in the English language necessitates the use of the letter "S." Now, I suppose you could say "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" but you probably have sh*t to do.

  Jon Stewart

  Funny, Christmas, New Year

  "The Daily Show's Stewart responds to O'Reilly's misleading attack". "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, www.mediamatters.org. December 7, 2005.

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• Certainly, historically, there has been more attention given in the international media to Indian English-language writers than to Pakistani English-language writers. But that, in my opinion, was justified by the sheer number of excellent writers coming from India and the Indian diaspora.

  Mohsin Hamid

  Numbers, Media, Diaspora

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• Two of the saddest words in the English language are, 'What party?' And LA is the 'What party?' capital of the world.

  Carrie Fisher

  Party, Two, World

  "'Get me to the funny bar'". Interview with Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. February 16, 2004.

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• We agreed that people are now afraid of the English language. He [T.S. Eliot] said it came of being bookish, but not reading books enough. One should read all styles thoroughly.

  Virginia Woolf

  Book, Reading, People

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• I used to keep a dictionary and work with it and then I realized there are more words that exist in the English language than there are in this dictionary.

  Nas

  Language, Used, I Realized

  Source: www.wbur.org

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• I've done a lot of going back and forth with my own writing, in particular translating my English language stuff into Ukrainian - poetry as well as prose. But I actually hate doing it. It is a thankless, mind-numbing process, additionally unpleasant for me because it reminds me of my ambiguous status of not belonging anywhere.

  Yuriy Tarnawsky

  Hate, Writing, Mind

  "No Tall Tales: An Interview With Yuriy Tarnawsky". Interview With David Moscovich, www.raintaxi.com. 2012.

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• I have always felt cookbooks were fiction and the most beautiful words in the English language were 'room service.

  Erma Bombeck

  Beautiful, Cooking, Room Service

  Erma Bombeck (2011). “I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression”, p.97, Fawcett

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• Jane Austen wrote six of the most beloved novels in the English language, we are informed at the end of Becoming Jane, and so she did. The key word is beloved. Her admirers do not analyze her books so much as they just plain love them to pieces.

  Roger Ebert

  Book, Keys, Pieces

  Roger Ebert (2009). “Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2009”, p.46, Andrews McMeel Publishing

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• Once, BBC television had echoed BBC radio in being a haven for standard English pronunciation. Then regional accents came in: a democratic plus. Then slipshod usage came in: an egalitarian minus. By now slovenly grammar is even more rife on the BBC channels than on ITV. In this regard a decline can be clearly charted... If the BBC, once the guardian of the English language, has now become its most implacable enemy, let us at least be grateful when the massacre is carried out with style.

  Clive James

  Grateful, Style, Enemy

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• Is there a phrase in the English language more fraught with menace than a tax audit?

  Erica Jong

  Phrases, Language, Menace

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• We have room but for one Language here and that is the English Language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans of American nationality and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  America, People, House

  Theodore Roosevelt (1954). “Letters: The days of Armageddon, 1909-1914”

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• I'm sorry.' The two most inadequate words in the English language.

  Beth Revis

  Forgiveness, Im Sorry, Apology

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