Modern Languages Quotes

• I am not of the opinion generally entertained in this country [England], that man lives by Greek and Latin alone; that is, by knowing a great many words of two dead languages, which nobody living knows perfectly, and which are of no use in the common intercourse of life. Useful knowledge, in my opinion, consists of modern languages, history, and geography; some Latin may be thrown into the bargain, in compliance with custom, and for closet amusement.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Education, Country, Latin

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• People remember Longfellow wrote Hiawatha, quite forget he was a Professor of Modern Languages!

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  People, Language, Remember

  Source: www.tolkienlibrary.com

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• In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required.

  W. H. Auden

  Two, Greek, Would Be

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• I believe there is no liturgy in the world, either in ancient or modern language, which breathes more of a solid, scriptural, rational piety, than the Common Prayer of the Church of England.  And though the main of it was compiled considerably more than two hundred years ago, yet is the language of it, not only pure, but strong and elegant in the highest degree.

  John Wesley

  Strong, Prayer, Believe

  John Wesley “John Wesley's The Book of Common Prayer”, Lulu.com

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• The soul is something which contains the body. The body doesn't contain the soul. The soul, if we put it into modern language, is the entire complex of relationships in whose context this organism exists.

  Alan Watts

  Soul, Body, Language

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• In the modern languages there was not, six hundred years ago, a single volume which is now read. The library of our profound scholar must have consisted entirely of Latin books.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Latin, Book, Years

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• "Writing" is the Latin of our times. The modern language of the people is video and sound.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Latin, Writing, People

  Wikimania conference, August 2006.

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• Economic analysis is the first principle of Marxism. Professors who were genuine leftists would have challenged the entire economics-driven machinery of American academe the wasteful multidepartmental structure, the divisive pedantry of overspecialization, the cronyism and sycophancy in recruitment and promotion, the boondoggling ostentation of pointless conferences, the exploitation of graduate students and part-time teachers, the subservience of faculty to overpaid administrators, the mediocrity and folly of the ruling cliques of the Modern Language Association.

  Camille Paglia

  Teacher, Association, Firsts

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Vamps & Tramps: New Essays”, p.19, Vintage

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• Ancient and modern languages teem with happily expressed sentiments of more or less force and beauty, sufficiently individualized and excellent to warrant their reproduction and classification.

  Maturin Murray Ballou

  Language, Ancient, Modern

  Maturin Murray Ballou (1899). “Edge-tools of speech”

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• It seems inconceivable that a species of human could possess fully modern language and not be fully modern in all other ways, too. For this reason, the evolution of language is widely judged to be the culminating event in the emergence of humanity as we know it today.

  Richard Leakey

  Humanity, Events, Today

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• Men must speak English who can write Sanskrit; they must speak a modern language who write, perchance, an ancient and universal one.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Writing, Men, Speak English

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.81, Simon and Schuster

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• Modern language must be older than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe, in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago, or earlier. I can't believe they did all those things and didn't also have a modern language.

  Murray Gell-Mann

  Motivation, Believe, Inspiration

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• what are the objects of an useful American education? classical knowlege, modern languages & chiefly French, Spanish, & Italian; Mathematics; Natural philosophy; Natural History; Civil History; Ethics.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Philosophy, Educational, Italian

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• An accomplished woman is one who has a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern languages; she must be well trained in the fighting styles of the Kyoto masters and the modern tactics and weaponry of Europe.

  Seth Grahame-Smith

  Fighting, Thorough Knowledge, Europe

  Seth Grahame-Smith, Jane Austen, Roberto Parada (2009). “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance--now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem”, p.45, Chronicle Books

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• As thy days, so shall thy strength be which, in modern language, may be translated as thy thoughts so shall thy life be.

  Emmet Fox

  May, Language, Life Is

  Emmet Fox (1940). “Power Through Constructive Thinking”

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