John Bright Quotes

It's haunting to realize that half of the languages of the world are teetering on the brink of extinction.

What could be more lonely than to be enveloped in silence, to be the last of your people to speak your native tongue, to have no way to pass on the wisdom of the elders, to anticipate the promise of the children. This tragic fate is indeed the plight of someone somewhere roughly every two weeks.

I have a high regard for Native languages and the pivotal role they have played in our nation's history.

The Internet offers endangered languages a chance to have a public voice in a way that would not have been possible before.

According to the United Nations' latest count, of the approximately 3,000 languages spoken in the world today, only some 78 have a literature. Of those 78, a scant five or six enjoy a truly international audience.

My kids are Irish; I want them to grow up playing Gaelic football and learning Irish.

A young man who is here speaks the Panis language, and in many other respects, is preferable.

I want to keep talking about my people and my country in my own language.

The knowledge of languages was very useful. I have a university degree in foreign languages and literature.

And though thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek.

I love learning new things that will never be put to practical use.

The liberal professions, and in a wider sense the well-to-do classes, are certainly those with the liveliest taste for knowledge and the most active intellectual life.

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

I've always loved being a student.

A library implies an act of faith.

Every two weeks, a language dies. The world is diminished when it loses its human sayings, just as when it loses its diversity of plants and beasts.

As our language wanes and dies, the golden legends of the far-off centuries fade and pass away. No one sees their influence upon culture; no one sees their educational power.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

Language is an archaeological vehicle... the language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history.

A classical work doesn't ever have to be understood entirely. But those who are educated and who are still educating themselves must desire to learn more and more from it.

I have a thirst - it's an awful word, but I'm thirsty for knowledge. I like knowing things, the odder the better, the more obtuse the better.

The importance of education is ingrained in Scottish history.

The Hawaiian language needs to be studied globally as a language of life.

I studied French in high school and German in college and I once took a 24-hour Italian crash course. English has by far the most words in it of any other language. Our money might not be worth anything anymore, but the language is.

My love of books - not just of their tactile pleasures but of their astonishing variety - was born in a book-filled house; my father is a scholar.