Language Quotes
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’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 Many people do not know that Jesus did not speak Latin or English or Hebrew; he spoke Aramaic. But nobody knows that language.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o Abusive language and swearing are a legacy of slavery, humiliation, and disrespect for human dignity, one’s own and that of other people.
Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky I’m all self-taught. I never had a teacher. Even for English, and French, and German, I hardly went to school.
Karl LagerfeldKarl Lagerfeld If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Paul the ApostlePaul the Apostle The true Way is sublime. It can’t be expressed in language. Of what use are scriptures? But someone who sees his own nature finds the Way, even if he can’t read a word.
BodhidharmaBodhidharma The lapse of ages changes all things – time, language, the earth, the bounds of the sea, the stars of the sky, and every thing about, around, and underneath man, except man himself.
Lord ByronLord Byron The shorter and the plainer the better.
Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter I liked different etymologies, different slang that came out in different eras. Different languages. Different dialects.
MF DOOMMF DOOM Mathematicians may flatter themselves that they possess new ideas which mere human language is as yet unable to express.
James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell Writing in African languages became a topic of discussion in conferences, in schools, in classrooms; the issue is always being raised – so it’s no longer “in the closet,” as it were. It’s part of the discussion going on about the future of African literature.
Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o