Language Quotes
Lying is the misuse of language. We know that. We need to remember that it works the other way round too.
Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin I think the president [Barack Obama] adopted some of that same language, but took it into the White House.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates At every moment where language can’t go, that’s your mind.
BodhidharmaBodhidharma A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
Alan PerlisAlan Perlis The notion that in order to have a nation it is necessary for there to be a common language, a common territory and common culture has failed to stand the test of time or the scrutiny of scientific definition of objective reality…
Kwame NkrumahKwame Nkrumah Advertising is not merely an assembly of competing messages; it is a language itself which is always being used to make the same general proposal
John BergerJohn Berger You get another person who operates only in an African language and there are many persons who operate only in African languages; he or she is excluded from all the goodies that come with English.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o If it’s racist, it’s racist. If it’s anti-Semitic, it’s anti-Semitic. If it’s anti-women, it’s anti-women. If it’s anti-immigrant, it’s anti-immigrant, and we need to really strengthen our language, so that it is clear and not mushy.
Barbara BoxerBarbara Boxer The English language on her tongue became a smoke-screen, without her eyes changing expression in the least.
Pat ConroyPat Conroy So what I thought was just an African problem or issue is actually a global phenomenon about relationships of power between languages and cultures.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o I don’t speak anything very well. The longer that you travel, you find out that you really don’t even need to speak the language to get around and get things done, to live in those places.
Alan BishopAlan Bishop Nothing is so impenetrable as laughter in a language you don’t understand.
William GoldingWilliam Golding I was wondering why I was put in prison for working in an African language when I had not been put in prison for working in English. So really, in prison I started thinking more seriously about the relation between language and power.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o I’ve always been very tied to language.
Barbara KrugerBarbara Kruger There is the fear, common to all English-only speakers, that the chief purpose of foreign languages is to make fun of us. Otherwise, you know, why not just come out and say it?
Barbara EhrenreichBarbara Ehrenreich Act averse to nasty language and partial to fruity tea.
Al SwearengenAl Swearengen