Power Of Language Quotes

“It is often said that what sets Shakespeare apart is his ability to illuminate the workings of the soul and so on, and he does that superbly, goodness knows, but what really characterizes his work - every bit of it, in poems and plays and even dedications, throughout every portion of his career - is a positive and palpable appreciation of the transfixing power of language. A Midsummer Night's Dream remains an enchanting work after four hundred years, but few could argue that it cuts to the very heart of human behaviour. What it does is take, and give, a positive satisfaction in the joyous possibilities of verbal expression.”
― Bill Bryson, Shakespeare: The World as Stage

“You can use the power of words to bury meaning or to excavate it.”
― Rebecca Solnit, Men Explain Things to Me

“I dream of a garden overripe and wild. Of a woman gathering the sea into her hands and letting it fall in many colored petals to a green, green earth. I dream of words on a page transforming to birds, and birds transforming to children, and children transforming to stars.”
― Kelly Barnhill, Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories

“If you want to conquer civilizations, restructure their languages.
Long time ago, even god used this strategy to rule over mankind.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“What is it that makes language a far more powerful—and risky—tool for gods than it is for even humans? What is it that makes gods gods? What am I?”
― Ann Leckie, The Raven Tower

“(About the reason why scholars hold inclination towards Arabic as a heresy): [...] one must not accept the customs of a people whose language one loves, nor cover up small coups d'état with the gold plate of language, nor dupe young people and Maecenases into believing that one can fence as soon as one knows how to parry and thrust and hold the épée and body.”
― Johann Georg Hamann, Writings on Philosophy and Language