Terry Eagleton Quotes

Thinking about language, while thinking _in_ language, leads to puzzles and paradoxes.

Language is generated by the intellect and generates the intellect.

Man does not exist prior to language, either as a species or as an individual.

It is not humanly possible to gather immediately from it what the logic of language is. Language disguises thought.

Whitney wanted to eradicate the idea that in the case of a language we are dealing with a natural faculty; in fact, social institutions stand opposed to natural institutions.

Every language having a structure, by the very nature of language, reflects in its own structure that of the world as assumed by those who evolved the language. In other words, we read unconsciously into the world the structure of the language we use.

I love language. It doesn't bother me that its effects are partial. To me that is very sanity-producing. It would be weird if the effects of language were more than partial, if your whole life existed within your texts. That would be much scarier to me than language being an inadequate tool to represent.

It is impossible to disassociate language from science...To call forth a concept, a word is needed.

Language is, without a doubt, the most momentous and at the same time the most mysterious product of the human mind.

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

Language, as symbol, determines much of the nature and quality of our experience.

All words, in every language, are metaphors.

Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.

Language always preserves a play or figure/ground relation between experience, and perception and its replay in expression.

The constructions of language, which is to say the constructions of thought, are formed within experience, not the other way around.

Only one thing remained reachable, close and secure amid all losses: language. Yes, language. In spite of everything, it remained secure against loss.

Necessity resides in the way we talk about things, not in the things we talk about.

The ultimate law of language is, dare we say, that nothing can ever reside in a single term. This is a direct consequence of the fact that linguistic signs are unrelated to what they designate and that, therefore, 'a' cannot designate anything without the the aid of 'b' and vice versa, or, in other words, that both have value only by the difference between them.

I hardly ever talk- words seem such a waste, and they are none of them true. No one has yet invented a language from my point of view.

Language helps develp life as surely as it reflects life. It is a most important part of our human condition.

A man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language.

Plurality of languages: [...] It is crucial 1. that there are many languages and that they differ not only in vocabulary, but also in grammar, and so in mode of thought and 2. that all languages are learnable.

The gift of language is the single human trait that marks us all genetically, setting us apart from the rest of life.

All of us, just because we are able to talk, also believe we are able to talk about language.

LANGUAGE, n. The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure.