Browsing Quotes With Tag: language (10)
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It seems to me a lot of trouble in this world has its origins in vague speech. Most people, when they go around not speaking clearly, somewhere in their unconscious they’re asking for trouble
Speaker: Haruki MurakamiSource: Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the WorldPosted: 22 Aug 2010 at 6:22 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule
Speaker: Stephen KingPosted: 23 Mar 2010 at 5:22 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
Speaker: Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)Posted: 04 Sep 2009 at 5:36 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Definitions are not correct or incorrect, they are simply useful or useless, where usefulness is judged by the clarity of one’s attempts at communication.
Speaker: SeanPosted: 06 Aug 2009 at 9:17 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.
Speaker: Michel de MontaignePosted: 05 Aug 2009 at 6:32 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
I enjoy reading the leaflets that come with medication, the respite provided by the precision of each technical term, which convey the illusion of meticulousness and a frisson of simplicity, and elicit a spatiotemporal dimension free of any striving for beauty, creative angst or the never-ending and hopeless aspiration to attain the sublime.
Speaker: Muriel BarberySource: the Elegance of the HedgehogPosted: 25 Jun 2009 at 7:35 AMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.
Speaker: Jorge Luis BorgesPosted: 28 Nov 2008 at 1:23 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Dictionaries are like watches: the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
Speaker: Samuel JohnsonPosted: 28 Nov 2008 at 12:56 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
The English language is rather like a monster accordion, stretchable at the whim of the editor, compressible ad lib.
Posted: 16 Nov 2008 at 3:56 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
You make about 3 million mistakes, then you’re done.
Speaker: Richard G. ScottPosted: 21 Aug 2008 at 1:16 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment!