Like a diaphanous nightgown, language both hides and reveals.

Like a diaphanous nightgown, language both hides and reveals.

Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms.

Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms.

And who in time knows whither we may vent the treasure of our tongue, to what strange shores this gain read more

And who in time knows whither we may vent the treasure of our tongue, to what strange shores this gain of our best glories shall be sent, 't unknowing Nations with our stores? What worlds in the yet unformed Occident may come refined with the accents that are ours?

Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.

Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.

Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.

Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.

If it is true that the violin is the most perfect of musical instruments, then Greek is the violin of read more

If it is true that the violin is the most perfect of musical instruments, then Greek is the violin of humn thought.

Accent is the soul of a language; it gives the feeling and truth
to it.
[Fr., L'accent est read more

Accent is the soul of a language; it gives the feeling and truth
to it.
[Fr., L'accent est l'ame du discours, il lui donne le sentiment
et la verite.]

And don't confound the language of the nation
With long-tailed words in osity and ation.

And don't confound the language of the nation
With long-tailed words in osity and ation.

If language had been the creation not of poetry but of logic, we should only have one.

If language had been the creation not of poetry but of logic, we should only have one.