Grammar, which knows how to lord it over kings, and with high
hands makes them obey its laws.
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Grammar, which knows how to lord it over kings, and with high
hands makes them obey its laws.
[Fr., La grammaire, qui sait regenter jusqu'aux rois,
Et les fait, la main haute, obeir a ses lois.]

Our native language is like a second skin, so much a part of us we resist the idea that it read more

Our native language is like a second skin, so much a part of us we resist the idea that it is constantly changing, constantly being renewed.

For every man there is something in the vocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His enemies read more

For every man there is something in the vocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His enemies have only to find it.

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?

Like a diaphanous nightgown, language both hides and reveals.

Like a diaphanous nightgown, language both hides and reveals.

Language is fossil poetry.

Language is fossil poetry.

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.

We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our read more

We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.

Language is power, life and the instrument of culture, the instrument of domination and liberation.

Language is power, life and the instrument of culture, the instrument of domination and liberation.