semantic influence Quotes

Be careful with words, they're dangerous. Be wary of them. They begat either demons or angels. It's up to you to give life to one or the other. Be careful, I tell you, nothing is as dangerous as giving free rein to words

It is hard indeed to notice anything for which the languages available to us have no description.

Words are the source of all power. And names are more than just a collection of letters.

How you frame a debate is very important. When you call someone an 'illegal alien,' you've already stacked the deck against them.

Words can be turned into spears. They can be turned into prayers. It's a strange world that you are in. But you deal with words.

Whatever is spoken of acquires a certain existence.

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.

It is probably impossible to think without words, but if we permit ourselves to think with the wrong words, we shall soon be entertaining erroneous thoughts; for words, which are given us for the expression of thought, have a habit of going beyond their proper bounds and determining the content of thought.

I'm drawn to the magical efficacies of language as a political act.

People think boundaries and borders build nations. Nonsense-words do. Beliefs, declarations, constitutions-words. Stories. Myths. Lies. Promises. History

Words are never 'only words'; they matter because they define the contours of what we can do.

We don't suffer from a shortage of metaphors . . . But you have to be careful which metaphor you choose, because it matters.