When I was a college student and I got interested in linguistics the concern among students was, this is a lot of fun, but after we have done a structural analysis of every language in the world what’s left? It was assumed there were basically no puzzles.

‚Good English‘ is whatever educated people talk; so that what is good in one place or time would not be so in another.

If you want to talk about something new, you have to make up a new kind of language.

I grew up cursing a lot.

I think perhaps the most important problem is that we are trying to understand the fundamental workings of the universe via a language devised for telling one another when the best fruit is.

Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us.

Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‚infinitely‘ when you mean ‚very‘; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

Every now and then I will see a word as if for the first time, and suddenly appreciate that Evian is ‚naive‘ spelled backward, or that Bosnia is an anagram of ‚bonsai.‘

I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.

We are tired of aristocratic explanations in Harvard words.

I would say that jazz is my own language.

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

Many parents and teachers have become irritated to the point of distraction at the way the weed-style growth of ‚like‘ has spread through the idiom of the young. And it’s true that in some cases the term has become simultaneously a crutch and a tic, driving out the rest of the vocabulary as candy expels vegetables.

War is what happens when language fails.

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.

Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world.

I think we’re still in a muddle with our language, because once you get words and a spoken language it gets harder to communicate.

Music fills in for words a lot of the time when people don’t know what to say, and I think music can be more eloquent than words.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

It’s funny because I’ve made a living off of words, but words get in the way of what you really want to say.

England and America are two countries separated by the same language.

If you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don’t say, ‚You don’t know how to use the English language,‘ or ‚How could you make that argument?‘ It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive.

The educated Southerner has no use for an ‚r‘, except at the beginning of a word.

As Bromberger observed, rules are understood to be elements of the computational systems that determine the sound and meaning of the infinite array of expressions of a language; the information so derived is accessed by other systems in language use.

You can be a little ungrammatical if you come from the right part of the country.

I am most familiar with the Gujarati language.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

I remember the first time I heard a teenager say ‚LOL.‘ Just what? But it means ‚laugh.‘ Why don’t you just laugh? What are you doing?

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.

Words are but the signs of ideas.

But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.

The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

Being politically correct means saying what’s polite rather than what’s accurate. I like to be accurate.

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects – things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language – either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.

Language is a weapon of politicians, but language is a weapon in much of human affairs.

I have my own vocabulary. I love linguistics. That surprises people.

I could talk all day, T stands for talking, T stands for tender, T stands for things that don’t even rhyme with T.

I try to speak in a way that people can understand.

Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.

Mind you, the Elizabethans had so many words for the female genitals that it is quite hard to speak a sentence of modern English without inadvertently mentioning at least three of them.

‚Do you spell it with a ‚V‘ or a ‚W‘?‘ inquired the judge. ‚That depends upon the taste and fancy of the speller, my Lord‘.

If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.

Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.

I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.

I like the language in Proust but not the context.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

Language is wine upon the lips.

I promised myself that I would write as well as I can, tell the truth, not to tell everything I know, but to make sure that everything I tell is true, as I understand it. And to use the eloquence which my language affords me.

I have learned to interface – what I think would be the contemporary term – with various different lexicons, and people speak very different languages. I’ve learned to speak in a lot of tongues, and I can live with the bellicose language of some fervent, fire-breathing Christians, sure.

If we go on your iPhone and go to the dictionary and look up ‚humble,‘ 80 per cent of the definition is negative. It’s a controlling word. It’s a way to control the masses and to control the sheep.

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

My wife thinks she’s better than me at puzzles. I haven’t given in on that one yet.

‚Recreative‘ is a word that I invented because in urban culture, with colloquialism, we invent so many slangs. I don’t like the way that ‚recreational‘ sounds – I don’t like to say I do a lot of ‚recreational‘ reading. I like to say that I read ‚recreatively.‘ I do a lot of ‚recreative‘ reading.

Just as the humble, unassuming, assenting ‚O.K.‘ has deposed the more affirmative ‚Yes,‘ so the little cringe and hesitation and approximation of ‚like‘ are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness.

Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.