Henry Hazlitt Quotes

We think because we have words, not the other way around. The more words we have, the better able we are to think conceptually.

Not only the entire ability to think rests on language... but language is also the crux of the misunderstanding of reason with itself.

Language comes first. It's not that language grows out of consciousness, if you haven't got language, you can't be conscious.

Always, as a child, I would go around the house, and if I found a word that I didn't know the meaning of, I would write it down and ask my parents to define it and try to memorise it.

If I don't have words, it's a sign I'm not reading enough.

Education happens to be something that all people, all cultures, need to embrace. Math, science, the words of the world. To be able to speak and be able to have clarity and to be able to think. Those are the greatest of gifts.

Man is multiplied by the number of languages he possesses and speaks.

By reading so much, my vocabulary automatically improved along with my comprehension.

Of all the words in all languages I know, the greatest concentration is in the English word I.

Without words to objectify and categorize our sensations and place them in relation to one another, we cannot evolve a tradition of what is real in the world.

Language was a huge expansion of that capacity to deal with information.

Language is a nice way to remember things.

Reading taught me how to write.

Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech.

Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden.

The kids who speak well, are articulate and intelligent, are all readers.

Man can no more think without words than see without light.

If you will give the matter a moment's thought, you'll see that memory is the highest faculty of the human mind.

Most people understand that the more words children are exposed to, the stronger their vocabularies will be. But fewer people are aware that the quality of the words also significantly affects brain development.

When I was little, seven or eight years old, in third and fourth grade, I would always try to use long words and stuff.

Reading or written language is a cultural invention that necessitated totally new connections among structures in the human brain underlying language, perception, cognition, and, over time, our emotions.

Many studies have established the fact that there is a high correlation between vocabulary and intelligence and that the ability to increase one's vocabulary throughout life is a sure reflection of intellectual progress.

Language is so inherent to humanity, so necessary for even basic thinking, that stories and poetry are available to anyone who can process language.

A person who does not read cannot think. He may have good mental processes, but he has nothing to think about. You can feel for people or natural phenomena and react to them, but they are not ideas. You cannot think about them.

Language is one of the fundamental principles of human understanding. It is the way we interact with each other and how we grasp the world we live in. Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.