All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar's teeth.

All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar's teeth.

Grammar, which knows how to lord it over kings, and with high
hands makes them obey its laws.
read more

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.]

The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearne, but it is still nonsense.

The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearne, but it is still nonsense.

When a language creates -- as it does -- a community within the present, it does so only by courtesy read more

When a language creates -- as it does -- a community within the present, it does so only by courtesy of a community between the present and the past.

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

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

Change your language and you change your thoughts.

Change your language and you change your thoughts.

Fie, fie upon her!
There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip;
Nay, her foot speaks. read more

Fie, fie upon her!
There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip;
Nay, her foot speaks. Her wanton spirits look out
At every joint and motive of her body.

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.

Morals and manners will rise or decline with our attention to
grammar.

Morals and manners will rise or decline with our attention to
grammar.