Definitions, contrary to popular opinion, tell us nothing about things. They only describe people's linguistic habits; t — S.I. Hayakawa, Language in Action
Definitions, contrary to popular opinion, tell us nothing about things. They only describe people's linguistic habits; t — S.I. Hayakawa, Language in Action
Definitions, contrary to popular opinion, tell us nothing about things. They only describe people's linguistic habits; t — S.I. Hayakawa, Language in Action
Definitions, contrary to popular opinion, tell us nothing about things. They only describe people's linguistic habits; t — S.I. Hayakawa, Language in Action
Definitions, contrary to popular opinion, tell us nothing about things. They only describe people's linguistic habits; t — S.I. Hayakawa, Language in Action
Download Customize

Definitions, contrary to popular opinion, tell us nothing about things. They only describe people's linguistic habits; that is, they tell us what noises people make under what conditions.

— S.I. Hayakawa, Language in Action
Pin Share Tweet Telegram
Topics
language linguistics

More “Language” Quotes

On what rests the hope of the republic? One country, one language, one flag! — Alexander Henry
To experience sublime natural beauty is to confront the total inadequacy of language to describe what you see. Words can — Eleanor Catton
Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it. — Benjamin Whorf
Language fits over experience like a straight-jacket. — William Golding
It was less a literary thing than a linguistic, philosophical preoccupation... discovering how far you can go with langu — Robert Morgan
We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose c — Edward Sapir
We have the sense that medical students come to medicine with a great capacity to understand the suffering of patients. — Abraham Verghese
I think what medical training does is it gives you the language, the tools to look up facts. I think medical training gi — Tess Gerritsen
What we need in medical schools is not to teach empathy, as much as to preserve it - the process of learning huge volume — Abraham Verghese
I'd visit the near future, close enough that someone might want to talk to Larry Niven and can figure out the language; — Larry Niven
Language is the house of the truth of Being. — Martin Heidegger
Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by — James A. Baldwin