Homer Quotes

Change is legitimate and inevitable, for our language is a mighty river, picking up silt and flotsam here and discarding it there, but growing ever wider and richer.

Words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.

It's no big deal about how you get language to evolve. You cause language to evolve by saying new and intelligent things to each other.

Words are where most change begins.

Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.

Words do not change their meanings so drastically in the course of centuries as, in our minds, names do in the course of a year or two.

A word once uttered can never be recalled.

I cannot take back one word or action; the past does not change for anyone.

The change to the Latin alphabet will be done in three months or not at all.

Speakers of English love to invent and reinvent the language.

Once you can express yourself, you can tell the world what you want from it. All the changes in the world, for good or evil, were first brought about by words.

The words are purposes./The words are maps./I came to see the damage that was done/and the treasures that prevail.

But the adjectives change,” said Jimmy. “Nothing’s worse than last year’s adjectives.

Verbing weirds language.

Changes in language often reflect the changing values of a culture.

When the honey's out of the comb, there's no putting it back.

We don't have to start all over again and try to keep the slate clean. There is no more slate.

When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.

You know, words have strange destiny, too. They grow. They get old. They die. They come back.

If words are to change their meanings, as assuredly they are, let each user of language make such changes as please himself, put up his own suggestions, and let the best win.

Language does not stand still. Surprisingly, despite this knowledge, most speakers are fearful of change.

There are so many who know more than I do, who understand the world better than I do. I would be truly learned, a great scholar, if only I could retain everything I've learned from those I have known. But then would I still be me? And isn't all that only words? Words grow old, too; they change their meaning and their usage. They get sick just as we do; they die of their wounds and then they are relegated to the dust of dictionaries. And where am I in all this?

What is already woven cannot be undone. It will not make the trees grow again for you to bring the building down on our heads.

English, no longer an English language, now grows from many roots.

everything changes, nothing perishes