Quote Worthy

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights. - Napoleon Bonaparte

A mixture of admiration and pity is one of the surest recipes for affection. - Arthur Helps

Routine is not organization, any more than paralysis is order. - Arthur Helps

Rough diamonds may sometimes be mistaken for worthless pebbles. - Thomas Browne

Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind. - Marston Bates

Learn to pause or nothing worthwhile can catch up with you. - Dorothy Ballard

Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present. - Roger Babson 

There are some things that are so serious that you have to laugh at them. - Niels Bohr

Speak not against anyone whose burden you have not weighed yourself. - Marion Zimmer Bradley

Be determined to handle any challenge in a way that will make you grow. - Les Brown

Questions - Quotes

A child can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer. - Unknown

A good question is, of course, the key by which infinite answers can be educed. - Isaac Asimov

As human beings, don't we need questions without answers as well as questions with answers, questions that we might someday answer and questions that we can never answer? - Alan Lightman

Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs. - Oliver Goldsmith

Every question possessed a power that did not lie in the answer. - Elie Wiesel

‘How do you know so much about everything?’ was asked of a very wise and intelligent man; and the answer was ‘By never being afraid or ashamed to ask questions as to anything of which I was ignorant.’ - John Abbott

’Tis not every question that deserves an answer. - Thomas Fuller

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions. - Lou Holtz 

It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it. - Jeseph Joubert

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. - Eugene Ionesco

It’s the questions we can’t answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he’ll look for his own answers. - Patrick Rothfuss

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Albert Einstein

Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why. - William Hazlitt

No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious. - George Bernard Shaw

Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers. - Anthony Robbins

Question is a trap, and an answer your foot in it. - John Steinbeck

Questions are dangerous, for they have answers. - Jacqueline Carey

Questions are far more effective than defensive statements. They do not imply agreement, but they do convey interest and a desire to understand and facilitate an environment for peak performance, a central thread of effective leadership.... The next time someone accuses you of virtually anything, ask some questions. Resolving the situation may take more time, but the outcome will likely be more productive for both of you. - Stephen Young

Questions give us no rest. We know not why our curse makes us seek we know not what, ever and ever. But we cannot resist it. It whispers to us that there are great things on this earth of ours, and that we must know them. - Ayn Rand

Questions provide the key to unlocking our unlimited potential. - Tony Robbins

Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them. - Ralph N. Gerard

The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Albert Einstein

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. - Edmund Burke

The one real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions. - Mandell Creighton

The only questions that really matter are the ones you ask yourself. - Ursula K. Le Guin

The question is not what you look at, but what you see. - Henry David Thoreau

The question should be, is it worth trying to do, not can it be done. - Allard Lowenstein

The real questions are the ones that obtrude upon your consciousness whether you like it or not, the ones that make your mind start vibrating like a jackhammer, the ones that you ‘come to terms with’ only to discover that they are still there. - Ingrid Bengis

The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions. - Claude Levi-Strauss

There are no foolish questions, and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions. - Charles P. Steinmetz

There are no right answers to wrong questions. - Ursula K. Le Guin

There are questions so indiscreet, that they deserve neither truth nor falsehood in reply. - Madame Swetchine

There are two sides to every question. - Unknown

To ask the hard question is simple. - W. H.Auden

To be able to ask a question clearly is two-thirds of the way to getting it answered. - John Ruskin

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science. - Albert Einstein

Well, it's not so easy to give an answer when you ask a stupid question! - Hans Christian Andersen

Why ... did so many people spend their lives not trying to find answers to questions – not even thinking of questions to begin with? Was there anything more exciting in life than seeking answers? - Isaac Asimov

With a hypothetical question you can only get, at best, a hypothetical answer. - Father William Seifert

Your questions are false if you already know the answer. - Jose Saramago

Food For Thought

When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast with a scientific and technological abundance. We’ve learned to fly the air as birds, we’ve learned to swim the seas as fish, yet we haven’t learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters. - Martin Luther King Jr

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background or his religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. - Nelson Mandela

Into each life a little rain must fall, a little sun must shine, and therein lives growth. The heart will break and mend again with love, forgiveness, and time. We don’t choose the pain but we must choose to heal. Innocence lost is wisdom gained in heart, in mind, and in soul. - Unknown

Quote Worthy

Though all afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure. - David Viscott

Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. - Samuel Johnson

It’s not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy. The bee is praised; the mosquito is swatted. - Marie O ’Conner

Many could forgo heavy meals, a full wardrobe, a fine house, et cetera; it is the ego they cannot forgo. - Mohandas Gandhi

You will become as small as your controlling desire; or as great as your dominant aspiration. - James Allen

I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step process. - Thomas Edison

It is vital that when educating our children’s brains, that we do not neglect to educate their hearts. - Unknown

If you remember the day’s blessings and forget the day’s troubles, then you have a good memory. - Unknown

Pneumonia

“It’s just a cold,” the doctor said. “There is no cure, and you’ll just have to live with it until it goes away.”

“But Doctor,” the patient whined. “It’s making me so miserable.”

The doctor rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. Then he said, “Look, go home and take a hot bath. Then put a bathing suit on and run around the block three or four times.”

“What!” the patient exclaimed. “I'll get pneumonia!”

“We have a cure for pneumonia,” the doctor said.

Mirrors - Quotes

I am a big believer in the ‘mirror test’. All that matters is if you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there, that you have done your best. - Unknown

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only. - Samuel Butler

The best mirror is an old friend. - Unknown

The Universe is the mirror of the people, and each person is a mirror to every other person. - Unknown

Pride - Quotes

A man’s pride can be his downfall, and he needs to learn when to turn to others for support and guidance. - Bear Grylls

A man’s spirit is free, but his pride binds him with chains of suffocation in a prison of his own insecurities. - Jeremy Aldana

A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. - C.S. Lewis

A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. - Henry Ward Beecher

Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction. - Margaret Thatcher

If you see anything in yourself which may make you proud, look a little further, and you will find enough to make you humble. - Wellins Calcott

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes. - John Ruskin

It’s a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so. - Georges Bernanos

It's a waste of time to have too much pride in anything. Perhaps it's good to have a sense of duty, a jealous zeal to protect or improve, but pride ultimately is only that which stands vulnerable to offense and degradation. - Henry Rollins

It is reported of the peacock that priding himself in his gay feathers he ruffles them up; but spying his black feet he soon lets fall his plumes. So he that glories in his gifts and adornings should look upon his corruptions, and that will damp his high thoughts. - Anne Bradstreet

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That's not a guess, it's a guarantee. With pride, it's not a matter of 'if' we will fall, but 'when.' There are no exceptions. - John C. Maxwell

Let pride go afore, shame will follow after. - George Chapman

Live according to the ethics of excellence, and you can always stand proud. Pride – not vanity, but dignity and self-respect – should carry a lot of weight in helping you make decisions. Let pride help you decide. - Price Pritchett

No one enjoys feeling weak, whether it is emotionally, spiritually or physically. There is something within the human spirit that wants to resist the thought of weakness. Many times this is nothing more than our human pride at work. Just as weakness carries a great potential for strength, pride carries an equally great potential for defeat. - Charles Stanley

Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man’s erring judgment, and misguide the mind; What the weak head with strongest bias rules, – is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. - Alexander Pope

One of the best temporary cures for pride and affection is seasickness; a man who wants to vomit never puts on airs. - Josh Billings

Pride ... is sometimes virtuous and sometimes vicious, according to the character in which it is found, and the object to which it is directed. - Fluke Greville

Pride comes from not knowing yourself and the world. The older you grow, and the more you see, the less reason you will find for being proud. Ignorance and inexperience are the pedestal of pride; once the pedestal is removed – pride will soon come down. - J.C. Ryle

Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold. - Thomas Jeffeson

Pride deafens us to the advice or warnings of those around us. - John C. Maxwell

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man… It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone. - C.S. Lewis

Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts, not to hurt others. - George Eliot

Pride is a personal commitment. It is an attitude which separates excellence from mediocrity. - Unknown

Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals. - Fulton J. Sheen

Pride is as loud a beggar as want and a great deal more saucy. - Ben Franklin

Pride is at the bottom of a great many errors and corruptions, and even of many evil practices, which have a great show and appearance of humility. - Matthew Henry

Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself. - Baruch Spinoza

Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages. - Samuel Johnson

Pride is tasteless, colorless, and sizeless. Yet it is the hardest thing to swallow. - August B. Black

Pride is the mother of arrogance.  - Toba Beta

Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. - Henry Ward Beecher

Pride sullies the noblest character. - Claudius

Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves. - Emily Bronte

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great. - Voltaire

There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. ‘Good pride’ represents our dignity and self-respect. ‘Bad pride’ is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance. - John C. Maxwell

There is a paradox in pride – it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so. - Charles Caleb Colton

Though pride is not a virtue, it is the parent of many virtues. - M. C. Collins

Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune. - C.G. Jung

To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses it; for, when we fail, our pride supports us, when we succeed, it betrays us. - Charles Caleb Colton

Whatever makes us feel superior to other people, whatever tempts us to convey a sense of superiority, that is the gravity of our sinful nature, not grace. - Philip Yancey

When you are full of pride on the inside, it makes you stiff, stubborn, and creates strife with others. - John C. Maxwell

Quotes

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. - Leo Buscaglia

 

Most men believe that it would benefit them if they could get a little from those who have more. How much more would it benefit them if they would learn a little from those who know more. - William J. H. Boetcker

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong. - William J. H. Boetcker

When we immerse ourself in desire without guilt, shame or clinging, it can show us something special about our own minds that allows us to embrace life fully. - Mark Epstein

I owe much to my friends; but, all things considered, it strikes me that I owe even more to my enemies. The real person springs to life under a strain even better than under a caress. - Andre Gide

Quitting - Quotes

Defeat doesn’t finish a man – quitting does. - Richard Nixon

If you never quit when the going gets tough, you will never have anything to regret for the rest of your life. - Unknown

Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong. - Muhammad Ali

I've seen people that are extremely brilliant and they don't have the staying power. They don’t have that never give up quality. I've always said that other than bad ideas, which is a reason for failure, the ability to never ever quit or give up is something that is very, very important for success as an entrepreneur. - Donald Trump

Most people who succeed in the face of seemingly impossible conditions are people who simply don’t know how to quit. - Robert Schuller

Never give in – never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. - Winston Churchill

Never give up, but know when to quit. - Unknown

Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don’t quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don’t quit until you reach it. Never quit. - Bear Bryant

Of all the stratagems, to know when to quit is the best. - Chinese Proverb

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit. - Vince Lombardi

Quitting is never an option. The cows have to be milked come Hell or High Water. - Robert Schuller

The one thing worse than a quitter is the one who is afraid to begin. - Unknown

There's a difference between quitting and knowing when you're beat. - Cormac McCarthy

Dust If You Must

Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be better

To paint a picture or write a letter

Bake a cake or plant a seed

Ponder the difference b etween want and need

Dust if you must, but there’s not much time,

With rivers to swim and mountains to climb

Music to hear and books to read

Friends to cherish and life to lead

Dust if you must, but the world’s out there

With the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair

A flutter of snow, a shower of rain

Tis day will not come around again

Dust if you must, but bear in mind

Old age will come and it’s not kind

And when you go – and go you must

You, yourself, will make more dust

Quote Worthy

If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present. - Lao Tzu

An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out? - Rene Descartes

You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. - Zig Ziglar

To me, beauty is about being comfortable in your won skin. It’s about knowing and accepting who you are. - Ellen Degeneres

To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it. - Kurt Vonnegut

Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future. - Denis Waitley

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. - Lao Tzu

The more you know yourself, the less dependant you are on the good opinion of others. - Lynda Field

Happiness Is Always An Option

A very inspirational story. We should all learn from Shane's positive attitude.

Happiness is always an option

http://www.wimp.com/happinessalways/

Principles - Quotes

’Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. - Thomas Paine

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

A principle that can't bear being laughed at, frowned on, and cold-shouldered, isn't worthy of the name. - Louisa May Alcott

Even an evil man can have principles – he can be true to his own evil, which is not always so easy. - Norman Mailer

He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own. - Aesop

He who governs himself according to what he calls his principles may be punished either by one party or the other for those very principles. He who proceeds without principle, as chance, timidity, or self-preservation directs, will not perhaps fare better; but he will be less blamed. - St. John de Crevecoeur

I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle. - Andrew Carnegie

It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them. - Alfred Adler

It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies. - Arthur Calwell

It is often easier to fight for your principles than to live up to them. - Adlai Stevenson

It is the right thing to have values and principles; just do not think that your values and principles must be the right ones. Be sensible enough to change when they are proven wrong. - Unknown

Many frequently change their principles, but seldom their practices. - Norman MacDonald

Nobody ever did anything very foolish except from some strong principle. - Viscount William Lamb Melbourne

Principles and values are for people to live it out, and not for them to brag about. The wise practice them quietly and without fanfare. - Unknown

Principles, like advice, should be kept to oneself unless asked for, because what you think are high ideals may well just be silly notions to the next person. - Vincent Thnay

The principles now planted in thy bosom will grow, and one day reach maturity; and in that maturity thou wilt find thy heaven or thy hell. - David Thomas

Values and principles are like the roots of a tree. The stronger they are, the more able the person is to withstand the wave of changes that blow his way. - Unknown

When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn’t the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice. - Otto von Bismarck

Labour - Quotes

Looking for a quote on a particular subject? I have categorized the quotes to make the search easier This 'label' - ZQuotesL - has all the quotes on subjects beginning with the Alphabet L. You might want to search the labels on the right hand side of the page too.

All labour that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. - Martin Luther King, Jr

As salt savors the broth, so does labour give a relish to pleasure. - William Scott Downey

Every acquisition that is disproportionate to the labour spent on it is dishonest. - Leo Tolstoy

By persistent labour man may attain to all excellence. - Demosthenes

He that labours is tempted by one devil; he that is idle, by a thousand. - Italian Proverb

He who lives upon the fruit of his own labour, escapes the contempt of haughty benefactors. - Saadi

It is ... only through strife, through labour and painful effort, by grim energy and by resolute courage, we move on to better things. - Theodore Roosevelt

It is good to labour; it is also good to rest from labour. - Horace

It is labour alone that is productive: it creates wealth and therewith lays the outward foundations for the inward flowering of man. - Ludwig von Mises

It is only by labour that thought can be made healthy, and only by thought that labour can be happy; and the two cannot be separated with impunity. - John Ruskin

It is to labour, and to labour only, that man owes everything possessed of exchangeable value. Labour is the talisman that has raised him from the condition of the savage: that has changed the desert and the forest into cultivated fields; that has covered the earth with cities, and the ocean with ships; that has given us plenty, comfort, and elegance, instead of want, misery, and barbarism. - John Ramsay

Labour conquers all things. - Virgil

Labour in all its variety, corporeal and mental, is the instituted means for the methodical development of all our powers, under the direction and control of will. - Josiah Gilbert Holland

Labour is good for a man, bracing up his energies to conquest, and without it life is dull, the man perceiving himself useless. - Martin Farquhar Tupper

Labour is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labour and could never have existed if labour had not first existed. Labour is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Abraham Lincoln

Labour is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable. - Samuel Smiles

Labour is the human element which makes the fruitful seasons of the earth useful to men. - Henry Ford

Labour is the root of riches. - Edward Counsel

Labour is the source of every blessing. - Aesop

Labour with what zeal we will, something still remains undone, something uncompleted still waits the rising of the sun. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Labour, laughing at difficulties, spans majestic rivers, carries viaducts over marshy swamps, suspends bridges over deep ravines, pierces the solid mountains with the dark tunnel, blasting rocks and filling hollows, and, while linking together all nations of the earth pities the proud fool and laughs him to scorn. He shall pass to dust, forgotten; but Labour will live forever, glorious in its conquests and monuments, and will keep organized no matter how many temporary defeats it endures. - Newman Hall

Labour, though it was at first inflicted as a curse, seems to be the gentlest of all punishments, and is fruitful of a thousand blessings. - John Rogers Pitma

Love labour: for if thou dost not want it for food, thou mayest for physique. It is wholesome for the body, and good for the mind. It prevents the fruits of idleness, which many times come of nothing to do, and leads many to do what is worse than nothing. - William Penn

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labour by taking up another. - Anatole France

No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor. - André Gide

No man will labour for himself who can make another labour for him. - Thomas Jefferson

Of the laws of nature, on which the condition of man depends, that which is attended with the greatest number of consequences, is the necessity of labour for obtaining the means of subsistence, as well as the means of the greatest part of our pleasure. - James Mill

Our labour preserves us from three great evils – weariness, vice, and want. - Voltaire

Pleasure is labour too, and tires as much. - William Cowper

Providence has decreed that those common acquisitions, money, gems, plate, noble mansions, and dominion, should be sometimes bestowed on the indolent and unworthy; but those things which constitute our true riches, and which are properly our own, must be procured by our own labour. - Erasmus

Such is the supreme folly of man that he labours so as to labour no more. - Leonardo da Vinci

Sulky labour and the labour of sorrow are little worth. Whatever a man does with a guilty feeling he is apt to do wrong; and whatever he does with a melancholy feeling he is likely to do by halves. - James Hamilton

The hope of reward is the solace of labour. - Publilius Syrus

The lot of man is ceaseless labour, or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder. - T. S. Eliot

There can be no general prosperity where labour has small reward. - Lewis F. Korns

There is a beautiful reciprocity between labour and wealth; if the latter is produced by the former, the former is invigorated and sustained by the latter. - Tristam Burgess

There is an abandonment, an escape, that physical labour bestows. - Steven Gould

There is no right more universal and more sacred, because lying so near the root of existence, than the right of men to their own labour. - Henry Ward Beecher

Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes, observe her labours, sluggard, and be wise. - Samuel Johnson

We assert that labour which is now monotonous, repugnant, and degrading, can be ennobled, elevated, and made honourable; or in other words, that industry can be rendered attractive! - A. Brisbane

What is acquired without labour is seldom worth acquiring at all. - Anne Radcliffe

What is earned with hard labour is eaten with pleasure. - Chinese Proverb

Without labour, nothing prospers. - Sophocles

Quote Worthy

Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly. - Morticia Addams

In baiting a mousetrap with cheese, always leave room for the mouse. - Saki

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it, you will land among the stars. - Les Brown

It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled. - Mark Twain

All the advice in the whole will never help you until you help yourself. - Fred Van Amburgh

It’s more important to grow your spirit than cut your dreams. - Robert Kiyosaki

The fear of some divine and supreme powers keeps men in obedience. - Robert Burton

Why spend time crying about the wind, when you can adjust the sails? - Dan  O’Donell

It’s not what you look at that maters, it’s what you see. - Henry David Thoreau

Nothing is too small to know, and nothing is too big to attempt. - William Van Horne

Language - Quotes

A hallmark feature of human intelligence is its adaptability, the ability to invent and rearrange conceptions of the world to suit changing goals and environments. One consequence of this flexibility is the great diversity of languages that have emerged around the globe. Each provides its own cognitive toolkit and encapsulates the knowledge and world-view developed over thousands of years within a culture. Each contains a way of perceiving, categorizing and making meaning in the world, an invaluable guidebook developed and honed by our ancestors. - Lera Boroditsky
A language which we do not know is a fortress sealed. - Marcel Proust

Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open. - J. K. Rowling

Every language is so full of its own proprieties that what is beautiful in one is often barbarous, nay, sometimes nonsense, in another. - John Dryden

For many people, language is inseparable from cultural identity since it is the means by which members of communities communicate with one another, and how individuals establish that they are, in fact, members of the same cultural community. - Lily Wong Fillmore

How truly language must be regarded as a hindrance to thought, though the necessary instrument of it, we shall clearly perceive on remembering the comparative force with which simple ideas are communicated by signs. To say, "Leave the room," is less expressive than to point to the door. Place a finger on the lips is more forcible than whispering, "Do not speak." A beck of the hand is better than, "Come here." No phrase can convey the idea of surprise so vividly as opening the eyes and raising the eyebrows. A shrug of the shoulders would lose much by translation into words. - Herbert Spencer

If names are not correct, language will not be in accordance with the truth of things. - Confucius

If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world. - Ludwig Wittgenstein

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart. - Nelson Mandela

In the acquisition of languages by direct study, where time can be afforded for the purpose, it is found that several languages, belonging to the same family – as the Latin, Italian, and Spanish, for instance – can be acquired together, almost as easily and rapidly, as either of them can be acquired separately, and with far less chance of their being lost from the memory of disuse. By finding the roots in the parent tongue, and by tracing the growth from these roots outward into different tongues, as it were genealogically, it is found that they descend and spread according to certain organic laws of modification and growth. - Horace Mann

It by no means follows, that because two men utter the same words, they have precisely the same idea which they mean to express: language is inadequate to the variety of ideas which are conceived by different minds, and which, could they be expressed, would produce a new variety of characteristic differences between man and man. - Fluke Greville

It requires a strong mind to bear up against several languages. Some persons have learnt so many, that they have ceased to think in any one. - Arthur Helps

Language comes into being, like consciousness, from the basic need, from the scantiest intercourse with other human. - Karl Marx

Language is a window to the world. - Susanna Zaraysky

Language is originally and essentially nothing but a system of signs or symbols, which denote real occurrences, or their echo in the human soul. - Carl Jung

Language is properly the servant of thought, but not unfrequently becomes its master. The conceptions of a feeble writer are greatly modified by his style; a man of vigorous powers makes his style bend to his conceptions. - William Benton Clulow

Language is the dress of thought. - Samuel Johnson

Language is the picture and counterpart of thought. - Mark Hopkins

Language, which is the uniting bond and very medium of communion between men, is at the same time by the great variety of tongues, the means of severing and estranging nations more than anything else. - Horace Smith

One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way. - Frank Smith

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. - Toni Morrison

Some languages are musical in themselves, so that it is pleasant to hear any one read or converse in them, even though we do not understand a word that we hear.... Others are full of growling, snarling, hissing sounds, as though wild beasts and serpents had first taught the people to speak. - Horace Mann

Speak the language of the company you are in; speak it purely, and unlarded with any other. - Philip Dormer Stanhope

The ability to speak several languages is an asset, but the ability to keep your mouth shut in any language is priceless. - Unknown

The enterprise of describing something in language that has never been described before is a very difficult thing to do. When you decide to do away with old clichés or old phraseologies, and to come up with a new way of saying something, it's extremely difficult. - Gao XingJian

The fact is that if you have not developed language, you simply don’t have access to most of human experience, and if you don’t have access to experience, then you’re not going to be able to think properly. - Noam Chomsky

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink. - George Orwell

The language denotes the man. A coarse or refined character finds its expression naturally in a coarse or refined phraseology. - Christian Nestell Bovee

The limits of my language are the limits of my world. - Ludwig Wittgenstein

The most difficult step in the study of language is the first step. - Leonard Boomfield

The unaffected language of real feeling and benevolence is easily understood, and is never ridiculous. - Maria Edgeworth

There’s no such thing as dead languages, only dormant minds. - Carlos Ruiz Zafón

We live at the level of our language. Whatever we can articulate we can imagine or understand or explore. - Ellen Gilchrist

Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savour their songs. - Nelson Mandela

Without our language, we have lost ourselves. Who are we without our words? - Melina Marchetta