Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.

Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.

Like a diaphanous nightgown, language both hides and reveals.

Like a diaphanous nightgown, language both hides and reveals.

You taught me language, and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
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You taught me language, and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!

Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.

Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.

Change your language and you change your thoughts.

Change your language and you change your thoughts.

Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk read more

Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.

It was greek to me.

It was greek to me.

And who in time knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores
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And who in time knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores
This gain of our best glory shall be sent,
T' enrich unknowing nations with our stores?
What worlds in th' yet unformed Occident
May come refin'd with th' accents that are ours?

The English language is rather like a monster accordion, stretchable at the whim of the editor, compressible ad lib.

The English language is rather like a monster accordion, stretchable at the whim of the editor, compressible ad lib.