English Language Quotes - Page 13

• The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Nine, Helping

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), Ronald Reagan (1982). “Ronald Reagan”

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• Their talk was endless, compulsive, and indulgent, sometimes sounding like the remains of the English language after having been hashed over by nuclear war survivors for a few hundred years.

  Douglas Coupland

  War, Years, Survivor

  1991 Generation X,'It Can't Last'.

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• Rock star do not jump!" The launch was cutting sharply, its skipper calling out a phrase that bore no relationship to the English language as Amy knew it. "Rock star in a hurry!" Nellie replied, one foot on the boat's gunwale.

  Peter Lerangis

  Stars, Cutting, Rocks

  Peter Lerangis (2011). “The 39 Clues #7: The Viper's Nest”, p.12, Scholastic Inc.

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• There is the English language and then there's the Trump language.

  David Brooks

  Language, Trump

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• The English Language Amendment says above all, 'Let's see to it that our children, our young people, learn English. Let us not deny them the opportunity to participate in American life, so that they can go as far as their dreams and talents can take them.

  S. I. Hayakawa

  Dream, Children, Opportunity

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• The United States, a land of immigrants from every corner of the world, has been strengthened and unified because its newcomers have historically chosen ultimately to forgo their native language for the English language. We have all benefited from the sharing of ideas, of cultures and beliefs, made possible by a common language. We have all enriched each other.

  S. I. Hayakawa

  Land, Native Language, Ideas

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• The love in his eyes was so powerful, I needed to look away. Seth had an amazing grasp of the English language, but there were days when that skill was nothing compared to what he told me in his looks.

  Richelle Mead

  Powerful, Eye, Skills

  Richelle Mead (2008). “Succubus Dreams: Urban Fantasy”, p.279, Random House

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• That the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes.

  W. H. Auden

  Hair, Self, Hands

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• In the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty -six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society.

  John Grogan

  Magic, Foundation, Twenties

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• What the semicolon's anxious supporters fret about is the tendency of contemporary writers to use a dash instead of a semicolon and thus precipitate the end of the world. Are they being alarmist?

  Lynne Truss

  Use, World, Ends

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• I believe it is our values and our ideals that ultimately bind us together as a nation. But it is the English language which serves as the means by which we can communicate these values to those around us. Our common language, English, is that which unites us.

  Asa Hutchinson

  Believe, Mean, Together

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• Prescriptive grammar has spread linguistic insecurity like a plague among English speakers for centuries, numbs us to the aesthetic richness of non-standard speech, and distracts us from attending to genuine issues of linguistic style in writing.

  John H. McWhorter

  Writing, Issues, Insecurity

  John H. McWhorter (2001). “The Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of "pure" Standard English”, p.62, Basic Books

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• They had nothing in common but the English language.

  E. M. Forster

  Common, Language, Howards End

  E.M. Forster (2015). “Howards End”, p.308, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• The top 10 verbs in the English language are all irregular, even though irregular verbs make up only 3 per cent of the language.

  Erez Lieberman Aiden

  Top 10, Verbs, Language

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• I really want to adopt a child... I want to be called 'Mom.' It really is the most beautiful word in the English language.

  Patti Stanger

  Beautiful, Mom, Children

  "Patti Stanger Adoption: ‘Millionaire Matchmaker’ Plans To Adopt Child". www.huffingtonpost.com. June 13, 2012.

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• I don't procrastinate because I love the English language and the process of storytelling, and I'm always curious to see what will come to me next. If you procrastinate a lot, you might be one who loves having written, but doesn't so much like writing.

  Dean Koontz

  Writing, Might, Next

  "Interview with the Master of Suspense, Dean Koontz (part 1)". Interview with Trisha Sugarek, www.writeratplay.com. June 28, 2014.

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• We know from our recent history that English did not come to replace U.S. Indian languages merely because English sounded musical to Indians' ears. Instead, the replacement entailed English-speaking immigrants' killing most Indians by war, murder, and introduced diseases, and the surviving Indians' being pressured into adopting English, the new majority language.

  Jared Diamond

  War, Musical, Majority

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• Speaking of Sir Winston Churchill: He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.

  Edward R. Murrow

  Battle, Language

  Broadcast, 30 Nov. 1954

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• At last, in 1611, was made, under the auspices of King James, the famous King James version; and this is the great literary monument of the English language.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Kings, Literature, Lasts

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.111, tredition

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• I am now completing research supported by NSF and NEH that is mapping changes in the English language through all of North America, for both mainstream and minority communities.

  William Labov

  America, Community, Minorities

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• Alexander von Humboldt’s wide-ranging Views of Nature is a masterpiece of nineteenth-century natural history, at once science and art. Mark W. Person’s stunning new translation makes the wonders of this classic accessible to the English-language world of the present.

  Daniel Walker Howe

  Art, Views, World

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• It's [the word “sorry”] the most infuriating word in the English language. Just a cheap way to behave badly then shelve responsibility by putting the onus on the other person to be forgiving.

  Minette Walters

  Sorry, Responsibility, Forgiving

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• Al-Ghazali is the most important philosophical theologian of classical Islam, and Moderation in Belief is among his most important works. It sets out al-Ghazali's Ash?arite theology with unusual clarity and provides important background for such well-known works as his autobiographical Deliverance from Error and his attack on Avicenna in The Incoherence of the Philosophers. This first English-language translation, with notes that bring out the argumentation and background of the work, is thus very much to be welcomed.

  Peter Adamson

  Philosophical, Errors, Islam

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• Everybody gets a little dose of Shakespeare. He's the greatest playwright in the English language, but his politics are fairly square.

  Alex Cox

  Squares, Littles, Language

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• Learning preserves the errors of the past, as well as its wisdom. For this reason, dictionaries are public dangers, although they are necessities.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Past, Errors, Language

  Alfred North Whitehead (2014). “Science and Philosophy”, p.57, Open Road Media

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