#lang

For in spite of language, in spite of intelligence and intuition and sympathy, one can never really communicate anything to anybody. ↗

— Aldous Huxley

#inadequacy-of-words #language #communication

Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own. ↗

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#knowledge #languages #travel #understanding #communication

When I say or write something, there are actually a whole lot of different things I am communicating. The propositional content (i.e., the verbal information I'm trying to convey) is only one part of it. Another part is stuff about me, the communicator. Everyone knows this. It's a function of the fact there are so many different well-formed ways to say the same basic thing, from e.g. "I was attacked by a bear!" to "Goddamn bear tried to kill me!" to "That ursine juggernaut did essay to sup upon my person!" and so on. ↗

— David Foster Wallace

#communication #language #communication

Words have power. ↗

— Mira Grant

#language #persuasion #power #words #communication

Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English. ↗

— Aravind Adiga

#communication #english #language #communication

It is cognition that is the fantasy.... Everything I tell you now is mere words. Arrange them and rearrange them as I might, I will never be able to explain to you the form of Will... My explanation would only show the correlation between myself and that Will by means of a correlation on the verbal level. The negation of cognition thus correlates to the negation of language. For when those two pillars of Western humanism, individual cognition and evolutionary continuity, lose their meaning, language loses meaning. Existence ceases for the individuum as we know it, and all becomes chaos. You cease to be a unique entity unto yourself, but exist simply as chaos. And not just the chaos that is you; your chaos is also my chaos. To wit, existence is communication, and communication, existence. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#cognition #existence #language #communication

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people. ↗

— William Butler Yeats

#language #like #man #people #think

As our larynxes descended, we were able to make sounds with our mouths in new and far more expressive ways. Verbal language soon overtook physical gesturing as the primary means of communication for all human beings except Italians. (Earth (The Book), p. 36) ↗

— Jon Stewart

#humor #italian #jon-stewart #language #communication

Humans have invented all kinds of symbols to communicate not only with other humans but more importantly with ourselves. ↗

— José Luis Ruiz

#self #communication

There is one way to understand another culture. Living it. Move into it, ask to be tolerated as a guest, learn the language. At some point understanding may come. It will always be wordless. The moment you grasp what is foreign, you will lose the urge to explain it. To explain a phenomenon is to distance yourself from it. ↗

— Peter Høeg

#culture #foreign #insight #language #understanding