Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Our expression and our words never coincide, which is why the animals don't understand us.

I'm very bad at ending sentences. A lot times I just want to say, 'That's the end of my sentence. I have nothing more to say.'

Speech happens to not be his language.

It's sometimes comical to hear the younger generation ask their peers to repeat themselves.

I'm loath to do interviews. What comes out is generally not what I meant or thought I was saying or thought they were asking.

What Thucydides said of the Greeks at the time of the Peleponnesian War applies to us at present [1860]. The Greeks did not understand each other any longer, though they spoke the same language; words received a different meaning in different parts.

I'm not good with words, and I get mixed up.

Sometimes, words are twisted and don't reach people in their intended way.

I'm not very good with words, weirdly.

Sometimes it can be difficult when you're talking to a journo after the game, saying, 'Yeah mate, I was on the burst.' And then the translator is trying to translate that into Japanese, and apparently there is no actual translation.

Because my parents are Indian, everybody speaks Hindi to me, and I have no idea what they are saying.

I hate when I see someone who speaks English speaking to someone who speaks a different language, and they're screaming as if going louder is going to help the other person understand.

If there is an interpreter sitting between two friends, he may be able to translate the words but not the feelings with which I say something.

... suddenly I was a kid in the hall standing outside my locker about to head to Math. But that was how it went sometimes, the English language, when you really needed it, crumbled to clay in your mouth. That's when all the real things were said.

If you can't make yourself understood by your friends, you'll be in trouble when your enemies come for you.

As soon as we start putting our thoughts into words and sentences everything gets distorted, language is just no damn good—I use it because I have to, but I don’t put any trust in it. We never understand each other.

There,” she said triumphantly. “Like that.” He began to wonder if they were speaking the same language. “Like what?” “That! What you just said.” He crossed his arms. It seemed the only acceptable reply. If she couldn’t speak in complete sentences, he saw no reason why he had to speak at all.

If I've made myself clear, I've misspoken.

Most of our life is miscommunication, and when you add a language barrier to it, it just becomes total mayhem and confusion... It just adds to it with all of the cultural differences. It could be an American family meeting another American family and you could still have a total clash. With family, it's like visiting another planet.

I could speak to you and say, 'Laytay-chai, paisey, paisey.' ... Why aren't you responding? Oh, you don't speak Swahili. Well, I've got news for you. The dog doesn't speak English, or American, or Spanish, or French.

So the whole war is because we can't talk to each other.

I talk a lot in metaphors. I get my words out but sometimes they don't make sense.

In my mind I am eloquent; I can climb intricate scaffolds of words to reach the highest cathedral ceilings and paint my thoughts. But when I open my mouth, everything collapses.

One of them, for example, which will probably haunt me more than any other is the problem of communication.

The trouble was that he was talking in philosophy but they were listening in gibberish.