Michael Polanyi Quotes

We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language.

Every language having a structure, by the very nature of language, reflects in its own structure that of the world as assumed by those who evolved the language. In other words, we read unconsciously into the world the structure of the language we use.

We often think that language mirrors the world in which we live, and I find that's not true. The language actually makes the world in which we live. Language is not - I mean, things don't have any mutable value by themselves; we ascribe them a value.

Those who have reflected on the powerful influence of language on thought will perceive in how different a manner people who speak in different languages are apt to think.

It is probably impossible to think without words, but if we permit ourselves to think with the wrong words, we shall soon be entertaining erroneous thoughts; for words, which are given us for the expression of thought, have a habit of going beyond their proper bounds and determining the content of thought.

Words are in this respect like water, that they often take their taste, flavour, and character, from the mouth out of which they proceed, as the water from the channel through which it flows.

A man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language.

It is hard indeed to notice anything for which the languages available to us have no description.

Ideas do not exist separately from language.

Language does our thinking for us.

Nothing exists except through language.

Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society.

My interest is in how meaning is communicated via language, and I believe the shape, positioning, even the color of the language has an effect on meaning.

Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it.

From a linguistic point of view, you can't really take much objection to the notion that a show is a show is a show.

Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought; words will tell you things you never thought or felt before.

Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes.

A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.

If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better.

Language surely does affect our thoughts, rather than just labeling them for the sake of labeling them. Most obviously, language is the conduit through which people share their thoughts and intentions and thereby acquire the knowledge, customs, and values of those around them."

Men suppose their reason has command over their words; still it happens that words in return exercise authority on reason

I want to make clear only that words are not the things spoken about, and that there is no such thing as an object in absolute isolation.

Thinking about language, while thinking _in_ language, leads to puzzles and paradoxes.

All words, in every language, are metaphors.

You don't see something until you have the right metaphor to perceive it.