S. I. Hayakawa Quotes

If you don't speak Spanish, then don't accuse me of insulting you in that language, let alone insulting you ten times.

It hurts a lot when you cannot really comprehend what a person is saying in a meeting, or you don't even understand what you're reading in your contract.

There is always that age-old thing about England and America being divided by a common language. You think that because we speak English and you speak English that you're bound to understand and like everything that we do. And of course you don't.

If what is said does not concord with what was meant, what is to be done cannot be effected.

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

Men tighten the knot of confusion Into perfect misunderstanding.

Inconceivable!" "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

THE FATHER: But don't you see that the whole trouble lies here? In words, words. Each one of us has within him a whole world of things, each man of us his own special world. And how can we ever come to an understanding if I put in the words I utter the sense and value of things as I see them; while you who listen to me must inevitably translate them according to the conception of things each one of you has within himself. We think we understand each other, but we never really do.

The prevailing attitude of the speakers was one of heavy disagreement with a number of things which the reader had not said.

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.

We're all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding.

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.

Our words are, as a general rule, filled by the people to whom we address them with a meaning which those people derive from their own substance, a meaning widely different from that which we had put into the same words when we uttered them.

The surest sign of the estrangement of the opinions of two persons is when they both say something ironical to each other and neither of them feels the irony.

The surest sign that two people no longer speak the same language is that both say ironic things to one another but that neither senses the irony.

When you work with people who misunderstand you, instead of getting transmissions, you get transmutations, and that's much more interesting in the long run.

Who would have thought that a means of communication limited to 140 characters would ever create misunderstanding?

Just because I didn't do what you told me, doesn't mean I wasn't listening to you!

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

The message sent is not always the message received.

Your words and my words are the same, but not our meaning.

The most basic barrier was language itself, very few Americans in Iraq whether soldiers or diplomats or news paper reporters could speak more than a few words of Arabic. A remarkable number of them didn't even have translators. That meant for many Iraqis the typical 19 year old army corporal from South Dakota was not a youthful innocent carrying Americas good will, he was a terrifying combination of firepower and ignorance.

I actually don't understand a word Paula's saying anymore. It's like a new language.

I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this.