Top 100 Quotes About The Language English
#1. I admire people who dare to take the language, English, and understand it and understand the melody.
Maya Angelou
#2. You only have to look at London, where almost half of all primary school children speak English as a second language, to see the challenges we now face as a country. This isn't fair to anyone: how can people build relationships with their neighbours if they can't even speak the same language?
Theresa May
#3. Our government should speak a common language with the American people - plain English.
Alan Siegel
#4. Two of the saddest words in the English language are, 'What party?' And L.A. is the 'What party?' capital of the world.
Carrie Fisher
#5. I refuse to put the unnecessary strain of learning English upon my sisters for the sake of false pride or questionable social advantage.
Mahatma Gandhi
#7. To be fair, English is full of booby traps for the unwary foreigner. Any language where the unassuming word fly signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman's apparel is clearly asking to be mangled.
Bill Bryson
#8. So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.
Vikram Seth
#9. I believe we are being dishonest with language minority groups if we tell them they can take full part in American life without learning the English language.
S.I. Hayakawa
#10. Through radio I look forward to a United States of the World. Radio is standardizing the peoples of the Earth, English will become the universal language because it is predominantly the language of the ether. The most important aspect of radio is its sociological influence. (1926)
Arthur E. Kennelly
#11. Yes, it would nice for this fifty year period, this cradle of all vampire short stories in the English language, to include a vampire tale by Edgar Allan Poe. But the sad answer is that Poe never penned a vampire story.
Andrew Barger
#12. Burnside left even sooner, hard on the heels of a violent argument with Meade, an exchange of recriminations which a staff observer said went far toward confirming one's belief in the wealth and flexibility of the English language as a medium of personal dispute.
Shelby Foote
#13. I feel as if I could be any thing or every thing, as if I could rant and storm, or sigh, or cut capers in any tragedy or comedy in the English language.
Jane Austen
#14. At all periods of the [English] language it is difficult to assign a beginning date to most new words and meanings. They tend to slip into the language silently, and are placed in date order only when scholars subsequently get to work.
Robert Burchfield
#15. Though her grasp of English was modest and his Italian non-existent, their rapport was at once intuitive and intimate, founded more on physical attraction and a shared love of the outdoors than meaningful conversation.
Robert Radcliffe
#16. No one's going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful, although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude.
Rupert Murdoch
#17. A schoolchild should be taught grammar
for the same reason that a medical student should study anatomy. Having learned about the exciting mysteries of an English sentence, the child can then go forth and speak and write any damn way he pleases.
E.B. White
#18. The first time I was in Stockholm, everybody was real cordial, but I started having these nightmares that I was being watched by aliens, basically all the time. My theory on it was that it was really, really unnerving to be in a place where English isn't the first language.
Mikky Ekko
#19. I wondered what steps I could take to remove the word 'moisture' or even 'moist' from the English language; I really hated the way it sounded and always went out of my way to avoid saying it. I also really didn't like the word slacks,
Penny Reid
#20. Cure is one of the most precious words in the English language. It's a short word. A clean and simple word. But it isn't so easy a thing as it sounds. There are questions like: How will this affect us in ten years? In twenty? What will it do to our children? Our children's children?
Lauren DeStefano
#21. The four most important words in the English language are, "What do you think?" Listen to your people and learn.
J.W. "Bill" Marriott Jr.
#22. If you could pick one word in the English language to describe the universe, what would it be? Why?"
Here's my response:
Unfair.
Jordan Sonnenblick
#23. Whenever I write a paragraph in English, I first check it with the Google Translator, and most often it says no language detected.
M.F. Moonzajer
#24. China's cinema has been rising for some time; it has more exposure, so my chances of becoming internationally known are better. But the first thing I have to do is learn English. If I can grasp the language, then perhaps I can think about the U.S.
Ziyi Zhang
#25. The English language has a deceptive air of simplicity; so have some little frocks; but they are both not the kind of thing you can run up in half an hour with a machine.
Dorothy L. Sayers
#26. It takes a thorough knowledge of the English language to effectively abuse it.
Charlene Vermeulen
#27. 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
#28. Many people are intimidated by doctors ... People also feel stupid when they don't understand what a doctor's talking about the first time around, so they don't ask again. And let's be honest here, people. English is not a doctor's first language.
Erma Bombeck
#29. It is terrible to see someone being beaten up by the English language.
Martin Amis
#30. When I first started coaching, one of the worst things that I think I heard was 'It will be O.K.' I would wonder, 'How the hell is it going to be O.K.?' The worst word in the English language is 'hope.'
Bobby Knight
#31. English is the 'language of liberty' for nations emerging from years of cultural oppression.
Vaclav Havel
#32. 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
#33. The four most expensive words in the English language are, 'This time it's different.'
John Templeton
#34. Black English is simpler than standard English in some ways; for example, it often gets by with just 'be' and drops 'am,' 'is,' and 'are.' That's because black English arose when adult African slaves learned the language.
John McWhorter
#35. Shakespeare is absolutely big in Africa. I guess he's big everywhere. Growing up, Shakespeare was the thing. You'd learn monologues and you'd recite them. And just like hip-hop, it made you feel like you knew how to speak English really well. You had a mastery of the English language to some extent.
Ishmael Beah
#36. America is not a nation of separation. All our citizens are Americans. The common denominator is our language. Our language is English. The glue that binds generation after generation is both our Constitution and our English language.
James Traficant
#37. I have never been particularly good with languages. Despite a dozen years of Hebrew school and a lifetime of praying in the language, I'm ashamed to admit that I still can't read an Israeli newspaper. Besides English, the only language I speak with any degree of fluency is Spanish.
Joshua Foer
#38. I love vocal music, but I've had a hard time understanding myself through the English language. So it just seemed to me that if I relied solely on creating a voice out of the music, then I might be able to reach something more profound.
Arca
#39. In the history of humanity, there have been many languages, including French, that have served as universal languages: Latin, Chinese, Arabic, and more. Yet none of them ever ruled the world the way English does today.
Minae Mizumura
#40. The three most dreaded words in the English language are 'negative cash flow'.
David Tang
#41. To get rid of the infatuation for English is one of the essentials of Swaraj.
Mahatma Gandhi
#42. Speaks cheerful English and in the past has written this language with a paintbrush that talks.
Jimmy Breslin
#43. The people of the two nations [French and English] must be brought into mutual dependence by the supply of each other's wants. There is no other way of counteracting the antagonism of language and race. It is God's own method of producing an entente cordiale, and no other plan is worth a farthing.
Richard Cobden
#44. And then, this she offered to me, my one truth: "Our language," she said, "is not spoken, but sung ... Not simply words ... and grammar ... but melody. It was hard ... thus ... to learn English ... this language of wood. For the people of your nation, Octavian, all speech is song.
M T Anderson
#45. Young feller, you will never appreciate the potentialities of the English language until you have heard a Southern mule driver search the soul of a mule.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
#46. I will never know what it's like to have only one language in my head. I have the pleasure of being able to move back and forth between Spanish and English, and I incorporate both languages in my books.
Pat Mora
#47. Ho ho ho, tell me why you are not at home' is something Santa Claus could ask you if you stayed in a hotel over Christmas. It is most certainly not the reason why it is called 'hotel', but it will hopefully help you remember that the stress is actually on the second syllable.
Jakub Marian
#48. I've made a dog's breakfast of English history, geography, 'King Lear,' and the English language in general.
Christopher Moore
#49. Which brings us to the least sexy word in the English language, kids," Dad said, kicking back in his chair. "Inbreeding. Avoid it.
Sarah Rees Brennan
#50. They don't talk the same language as us. I don't mean that they don't speak English, but that their minds are different. They're like animals, and because I hate the sight and sound of them, and because you're a Britisher, I'm telling you to get out now while the going's good.
Eric Ambler
#51. It's a strange poverty of the English language, and indeed, of many other languages, that we use this same word, "depression" to describe how a kid feels when it rains on his birthday, and to describe how somebody feels the minute before they commit suicide.
Andrew Solomon
#52. English is my second language, but in Hong Kong, they don't know that I'm from China. They think I'm from Hollywood because all the films they see are from here. China and Hong Kong are very different places, but they're starting to merge. Still the culture is very different.
Bai Ling
#53. The English language is damned difficult, but it's also damned rich, and so clear and bright that you can search out the darkest places with it.
Katherine Mansfield
#54. My favorite three words in the English language are: 'I don't know', because every time I say them, I learn something new.
Timothy Leary
#55. Whenever I saw her, I felt like I had been living in another country, doing moderately well in another language, and then she showed up speaking English and suddenly I could speak with all the complexity and nuance that I hadn't realized was gone. With Lucy I was a native speaker.
Ann Patchett
#56. He spoke Spanish, English, Italian, and just enough of every other language to be able to charm women around the world.
Lynsey Addario
#57. They had nothing in common but the English language.
E. M. Forster
#58. It's as if Mom was expressing herself in a language other than English; a language that Grandma wouldn't be able to interpret simply by looking at the music notes.
Tessa Emily Hall
#59. Your emotional love language and the language of your spouse may be as different as Chinese from English.
Gary Chapman
#60. Empty your knapsack of all adjectives, adverbs and clauses that slo your stride and weaken your pace. Travel light. Remember the most memorable sentences in the English language are also the shortest: "The King is dead" and "Jesus wept."
Bill Moyers
#61. Sorry," said Salo."I would say, 'Is there anything I can do?'- but Skip once told me that that was the most hateful and stupid expression in the English language.
Kurt Vonnegut
#62. The language we share is at the core of our identity as citizens, and our ticket to full participation in American political life. We can speak any language we want at the dinner table, but English is the language of public discourse, or the marketplace and of the voting booth.
S.I. Hayakawa
#63. Net neutrality: The only two words that promise more boredom in the English language are 'featuring Sting,'
John Oliver
#64. Of all the superstitions that affect India, none is so great as that a knowledge of the English language is necessary for imbibing ideas of liberty and developing accuracy to thought.
Mahatma Gandhi
#65. 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
#66. I have no leisure to think of style or of polish, or to select the best language, the best English - no time to shine as an authoress. I must just think aloud, so as not to keep the public waiting.
Isabel Burton
#67. I've been in New York only a few days and I have learned only two words of your language: one is Swell, and the other is Lousy ... 'It's swell to be with you and excuse, please, my lousy English!
Vicki Baum
#68. Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language.
Raymond Williams
#69. Fuckyou-ish?" "The English dialect of the ancient language 'fuckyou.' Very old. Dignified even.
Celia Kyle
#70. Yes I am aware of the rules.
Yes I can totally see how I err the Queen.
Yes it is this very fact of slaying her language.
That gives my soul its melodies.
Malebo Sephodi
#71. The glorious insanities of the English language mean that you can do all sorts of odd and demeaning things to a book. You can cook it.
Mark Forsyth
#72. Never use the word, 'very.' It is the weakest word in the English language; doesn't mean anything. If you feel the urge of 'very' coming on, just write the word, 'damn,' in the place of 'very.' The editor will strike out the word, 'damn,' and you will have a good sentence.
William Allen White
#73. An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.
Edith Wharton
#74. More has been screwed up on the battlefield and misunderstood in the Pentagon because of a lack of understanding of the English language than any other single factor.
John W. Vessey Jr.
#75. In 1981, Ms. Ebtekar was made editor-in-chief of the English-language newspaper 'Kayhan International.' The man who gave her the job was Mr. Khatami, who was then head of the Kayhan publishing house.
Elaine Sciolino
#76. Don't try to defile the English language. I can think of a few other things I'd rather dirty up.
S.L. Jennings
#77. When I go to photograph somebody, they say, "What do you want me to do?" Those are the most frightening words in the English language. I want to say, "Please, go over into good light and do something unusual.
John Loengard
#78. In India the odd thing is that English is this almost artificial language floating on the surface of a place with about fifty other languages. The same is true of Nigeria but even more so.
William Golding
#79. I would say that the writers I like and trust have at the base of their prose something called the English sentence. An awful lot of modern writing seems to me to be a depressed use of language. Once, I called it "vow-of-poverty prose." No, give me the king in his countinghouse. Give me Updike.
Martin Amis
#80. Expressing emotion is not so easy. He has to remind himself that English is not her first language. Expressing emotion can be difficult even when the words are familiar.
Elise Valmorbida
#81. I think they've got 250 languages in Nigeria, and so English is a sort of lingua franca between the 250 languages.
William Golding
#82. There are no two words in the English language more harmful than good job,
J.K. Simmons
#83. The language of the internet is English, and an overwhelming proportion of the global computer chatter also originates from America, influencing the content of global conversation.
Zbigniew Brzezinski
#84. Of my English friends, I should find language too poor to speak the just praise and the excellence which shines in their characters and lives.
Dorothea Dix
#85. George Orwell once blamed the demise of the English language on politics. It's quite possible he never read a prospectus.
Arthur Levitt Jr
#86. After I arrived in Mountain View, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, I entered sixth grade and quickly grew to love my new home, family and culture. I discovered a passion for language, though it was hard to learn the difference between formal English and American slang.
Jose Antonio Vargas
#87. I'm sorry.' The two most inadequate words in the English language.
Beth Revis
#88. There were not words enough in the English language, nor in any language, to make his attitude and conduct intelligible to them.
Jack London
#89. You are, without doubt, holding in your hands one of the best-introduced books in the English language. We hope you enjoy the Introduction to the New Edition that follows this Introduction to it and continue to read on even into the book itself.
Douglas Adams
#90. My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets - no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!
Philip Roth
#91. I met people that I couldn't talk to - they didn't speak Spanish or English - but they knew my songs. That's what I love, the music has gone past where I thought it would get to. That's the power of music, how it can travel and break language barriers.
Prince Royce
#92. I came up with new leads for game stories by being observant and clever, by using the many gifts of the English language to intrigue and hook a reader.
Dick Schaap
#93. In Buenos Aires, I have a very close friend who speaks very good English, and she taught me. It was quite difficult because the muscles of your mouth are used to your language, and then when you want to speak another language, they don't go to the place they need to go to make the sound.
Elena Roger
#94. The English language is under assault by stupid people who use words they don't understand, and is defended by pompous asses who like to correct those people. We're not sure who to side with.
Tim Cameron
#95. Somebody once said that the Irish derived the greatest benefit from the English language. They court it like a beautiful woman. They make it bray with donkey laughter, they fling it at the sky like paint pots full of rainbow colors.
Malachy McCourt
#96. If only," repeated Rick with a shake of his head. "Those are two words in the English language that we regret saying the most.
Linda Weaver Clarke
#97. I had declared in public my desire to be a writer ... I wanted to develop a curiosity that was oceanic and insatiable as well as a desire to learn and use every word in the English language that didn't sound pretentious or ditzy.
Pat Conroy
#98. Then, as now, I believe that the English use language to hide what they mean.
Zia Haider Rahman
#99. 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
#100. A writer who wants to write good stuff needs to read great stuff. If you don't read widely, or read only writers in fashion at the moment, you'll have a limited idea of what can be done with the English language.
Ursula K. Le Guin
