Linguistic Quotes

“When it comes to correct English, there's no one in charge; the lunatics are running the asylum.”
― Steven Pinker

“She tried not to think in capital letters. It was a bad habit. If you weren’t careful, pretty soon you’d find yourself Going to the Store to Buy a Carton of Milk—or worse, speaking German.”
― Max Gladstone, Empress of Forever

“Language could be used as an instrument of control, a way of establishing hierarchies that suggest one set of people is better or more special than another. Through language, one automatically identifies one's place within a social and cultural hierarchy and we all carry with us illogical attitudes about the bearers of particular language, based on our own cultural background and continued exposure to local political ideals.”
― David Crow, Left to Right: The Cultural Shift from Words to Pictures

“The very use of the term "mental illness" (rather than, say, "neurosis", "insanity", "nervous breakdown", or other euphemisms) can be seen as an effort to move certain kinds of psychological distress into the biomedical realm.”
― Carl Elliott

“If you wanna know about a culture, you can read about it in any language - but if you want to experience that culture like your own, you gotta do it as one of their own - through their own native language.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“অনেকগুলো শব্দ প্রথম দেখায় নেতিবাচক মনে হতে পারে, কিন্তু আসলে তা নয়। আবার কতকগুলোকে ইতিবাচক অর্থেই আমরা নিয়ে থাকি অর্থাৎ প্রথম পাঠে আমাদের তাই মনে হয়; শব্দের ইন্টার-টেক্সটের দিকে যখন আপনি চোখ রাখবেন অথবা মন-যাই রাখুন না কেনো ঠিক তখন আপনি শব্দের উদ্দেশ্য ও উপায় জানতে পারবেন। যেমন ধরুনঃ পেসিমিস্ট এবং অপটিমিস্ট।”
― মেহেরাব ইফতি

“A creature without language is a creature without a soul”
― Burnside, John

“Every world has its distinct lingo,
you gotta catch the right chord.
Same language evokes different feelings,
based on time and age of the world.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee