#language

But the male lexicographers had somehow neglected to coin a word for the dislike of men. They were almost entirely men themselves, she thought, and had been unable to imagine a market for such a word. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#sexism #imagination

Anguish is the universal language ↗

— Alice Fulton

#empathy #inspiration #language #understanding #inspirational

I have written it before and am not ashamed to write it again. Without Wodehouse I am not sure that I would be a tenth of what I am today -- whatever that may be. In my teenage years, his writings awoke me to the possibilities of language. His rhythms, tropes, tricks and mannerisms are deep within me. But more than that, he taught me something about good nature. It is enough to be benign, to be gentle, to be funny, to be kind. ↗

— Stephen Fry

#humour #language #life #wodehouse #writing

Hebrew word for "charity" tzedakah, simply means "justice" and as this suggests, for Jews, giving to the poor is no optional extra but an essential part of living a just life. ↗

— Peter Singer

#hebrew #justice #language #poor #life

Euphemisms persist because lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable. ↗

— Bergen Evans

#euphemisms #language-awareness #life #lying #life

We speak now or I do, and others do. You've never spoken before. You will. You'll be able to say how the city is a pit and a hill and a standard and an animal that hunts and a vessel on the sea and the sea and how we are fish in it, not like the man who swims weekly with fish but the fish with which he swims, the water, the pool. I love you, you light me, warm me, you are suns. You have never spoken before. ↗

— China Miéville

#embassytown #language #lies-that-speak-truth #metaphors #similes

Language allows us to reach out to people, to touch them with our innermost fears, hopes, disappointments, victories. To reach out to people we'll never meet. It's the greatest legacy you could ever leave your children or your loved ones: The history of how you felt. ↗

— Simon Van Booy

#legacy #people #writing #love

Language is by its very nature a communal thing; that is, it expresses never the exact thing, but a compromise- that which is common to you, me, and everybody. ↗

— Thomas Hulme

#nature

I would like The Discovery of Poetry to be a field guide to the natural pleasures of language - a happiness we were born to have. ↗

— Frances Mayes

#poetry #nature

We're living in a teetering tower of babble. A shaky reality of words. A DNA soup for disaster. The natural world destroyed, we're left with this cluttered world of language. ↗

— Chuck Palanhiuk

#language #words #nature