Language Influence Quotes

With words we govern men.

Words are also actions.

I don't know, 'Zorro' was just so great for me because, knowing where I came from, everyone spoke Spanish to me, like, forever after that. And I'm, like, from Wales.

When I'm in the U.K. I find myself using a lot of Britishisms.

I am an American, but a sense of otherness was part of my growing up. I spoke Norwegian before I spoke English. My mother is Norwegian.

Both my parents had heavy accents, and so did everybody they knew. It's a rhythm thing - people who speak English where they have to hesitate and think of the right word. And I think it rubbed off.

What is your identity, and how do you know who you are if you don't have language?

English is my first language, but musically speaking, I write my music in Spanish.

Language and accents govern so much of how people think about other people.

I grew up in France, my first language was French, and I tend to gravitate towards French cooking.

Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition into which he has been born.

The world is mental in some way that we do not yet understand, but that which we're edging toward understanding. And the world is made of language. I can't say that enough. Whenever we get into these discussions about reality, or effects in space and time, we are operating outside this assumption that the world is made of language.

I am under the spell of language, which has ruled me since I was 10.

In Russian, ambition is a bad word. It's arrogant.

Words borrowed of Antiquity do lend a kind of Majesty to style, and are not without their delight sometimes. For they have the authority of years, and out of their intermission do win to themselves a kind of grace-like newness. But the eldest of the present, and newest of the past Language, is the best.

The best word shakers were the ones who understood the true power of words. They were the ones who could climb the highest.

But words are more powerful than anything.

I'm starting to believe in the power of a name. Because it can't be a mistake if I just call it 'change.'

The Book of the Heart provides a fresh perspective on the influence of the book as artifact on our language and culture. Reading this book broadens our appreciation of the relationship between things and ideas.

For example, in Malay, there are pronunciations that are similar to Chinese.

Your words are containers for power, and by the words you speak you frame your world!

No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality.

English grammar is so complex and confusing for the one very simple reason that its rules and terminology are based on Latin - a language with which it has precious little in common. In Latin, to take one example, it is not possible to split an infinitive. So in English, the early authorities decided, it should not be possible to split an infinitive either. But there is no reason why we shouldn't, any more than we should forsake instant coffee and air travel because they weren't available to the Romans.

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

It is often said that experiments should be made without preconceived ideas. That is impossible. Not only would it make every experiment fruitless, but even if we wished to do so, it could not be done. Every man has his own conception of the world, and this he cannot so easily lay aside. We must, example, use language, and our language is necessarily steeped in preconceived ideas. Only they are unconscious preconceived ideas, which are a thousand times the most dangerous of all.