Broken English Quotes

In a couple of Ahdaf Soueif's novels, she gets at the certain kind of English that's being spoken by Egyptians. It's a beautiful, expressive English but it is non-standard, "broken" English that happens to be efficient, eloquent, and communicates perfectly well even if it is breaking rules. ~ Elliott Colla

so how dare you mock your mother when she opens her mouth and broken english spills out / don't be ashamed of the fact that she split through countries to be here so you wouldn't have to cross a shoreline ~ Rupi Kaur

Poor Knight! he really had two periods, the firsta dull man writing broken English, the seconda broken man writing dull English. ~ Vladimir Nabokov

Well, because you mysteriously came all this way and obviously are not the man I thought you were, why the heck not. So, Phet, if that's even your real name, tell
me, how do I defeat Lokesh?"
"It's simple. Do to him what I did to you."
"What? Talk to him in broken English? ~ Colleen Houck

Under the assumption that it would attract less attention than a BIC language, the conspirators conducted telephone conversations in English--broken English, to be exact, with one tense, no articles, and two pronunciations, both wrong(129). ~ Vladimir Nabokov

I've seen the odd tarot reader and had my palm read in various countries and explained to me in many strains of broken English. Did I believe a word? To be honest, I didn't understand much, but I loved watching the presentation. ~ Simon Baker

I grew up listening to people speaking broken English. I probably picked that up. And I probably speak English almost as a second language. ~ Christopher Walken

Happiness, you make them" was her reply. My right words at the right time, I told Ms. Thomas during the interview, now several years after Grandma's death. "With her accent and broken English she misspoke, making happiness plural," I explained to Ms. Thomas. "And I like that, because it is good to be reminded that happiness is not just one thing and is always of your making. ~ Bridget Kinsella

Never make fun of someone who speaks broken English. It means they know another language. ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

It may amuse you to hear a Story. A few days ago, in Company with Dr Zubly, somebody said, there was nobody on our side but the Almighty. The Dr. who is a Native of Switzerland, and speaks but broken English, quickly replied 'Dat is enough. ~ John Adams

We never love a person after judging them because that's not love then, But today's life lesson is to judge a person before falling in love with that person, It's hard to trust anyone in this cruel world where all are determined to hurt you by any mean. ~ Debolina Bhawal

Late December, in Bridgwater, Somerset, Western Province, a middle-aged man named Thomas Wharnton, going home from work shortly after midnight, was set upon by youths. These knifed him, stripped him, spitted him, basted him, carved him, served him - all openly and without shame in one of the squares of the town. A hungry crowd clamoured for hunks and slices, kept back - that the King's Peace might not be broken - by munching and dripping greyboys. ~ Anthony Burgess

A French observer is surprised to hear how often an English or an American lawyer quotes the opinions of others, and how little he alludes to his own; ... This abnegation of his own opinion, and this implicit deference to the opinion of his forefathers, which are common to the English and American lawyer, this servitude of thought which he is obliged to profess, necessarily give him more timid habits and more conservative inclinations in England and America than in France. ~ Alexis De Tocqueville

God's definition of going well is unique, distinct, almost eccentric. His definition of wellness is not about health, finances, or job security. It's not about unfailing protection from the vagaries and dangers of a broken world. It's not about life being fair. It's about acceptance. ~ Mark Buchanan

This blindness is a result of the broken balance of learning. People who are hooked on teaching are conditioned to be customers for everything else. They see their own personal growth as an accumulation of institutional outputs, and prefer what institutions make over what they themselves can do. They repress the ability to discover reality by their own lights. The skewed balance of learning explains why the radical monopoly of commodities has become imperceptible. It does not explain why people feel impotent to correct those profound disorders which they do perceive. ~ Ivan Illich

The mass migration of the poorest of the poor to America is bad for the whole country, but it's fantastic for Democrats. Ask yourself: Which party benefits from illiterate non-English speakers who have absolutely no idea what they're voting for, but can be instructed to learn certain symbols? ~ Ann Coulter

No, I don't love Max anymore. But I don't want to give you this broken, empty me. I want you to have me when I'm full, when I can give something back to you. I don't have much to give right now. ~ Stephanie Perkins

To be human is to be broken and broken is its own kind of beautiful. ~ Drake

Broken Wings Don't break a bird's wings and then tell it to fly. Don't break a heart and then tell it to love. Don't break a soul and then tell it to be happy. Don't see the worst in a person and expect them to see the best in you. Don't judge people and expect them to stand by your side. Don't play with fire and expect to stay perfectly safe. Life is about giving and taking. You cannot expect to give bad and receive good. You cannot expect to give good and receive bad. Does it happen? Yes, but don't make that an excuse for you to keep doing what you know is wrong. Don't blame life for what you do. That is so selfish and ignorant on your behalf. ~ Najwa Zebian

The people who run the major banks have MBAs and wear suits. And when those people in suits come to the homes of people who don't have a high school diploma, don't even speak English, and offer them a home at zero percent down, that doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. ~ Ramin Bahrani

The horror of profound depression, and the hopelessness that usually accompanies it, are hard to imagine for those who have not experienced them. Because the despair is private, it is resistant to clear and compelling description. Novelist William Styron, however, in recounting his struggle with suicidal depression, captures vividly the heavy, inescapable pain that can lead to suicide:

What I had begun to discover is that, mysteriously and in ways that are totally remote from normal experience, the gray drizzle of horror induced by depression takes on the quality of physical pain. But it is not an immediately identifiable pain, like that of a broken limb. It may be more accurate to say that despair, owing to some evil trick played upon the sick brain by the inhabiting psyche, comes to resemble the diabolical discomfort of being imprisoned in a fiercely overheated room. And because no breeze stirs this cauldron, because there is no escape from this smothering confinement, it is entirely natural that the victim begins to think ceaselessly of oblivion. (105) ~ Kay Redfield Jamison

In the process of looking at broken paths, we often forget the lights that illuminates that path. ~ Alok Jagawat

Oh that's very English, that's probably why. They just go 'LOL' in America. ~ Kelly Osbourne

It was the month of May and there was warm sunshine dripping through the holes between the clouds, like the sky was a broken blue bowl and a child was trying to keep honey in it. ~ Chris Cleave

to be compassionate with myself, even when my will is weak and my body fails me; to give myself freely to those I love, even when it means my heart may be broken; and to live fully and completely while I have the chance - just ~ Camille Pagan

Dad,
Please accept this money to fix the broken window. I'm sure it's already fixed, considering Lydia's house pride and her phobia about unconditioned air, but

Dear Al,
I can't begin to explain my actions at Lydia's – I mean yours and Lydia's house. When I get to Charleston, I never imagined that you would have

Dear Dad and Lydia,
I apologize to both of you for my irrational behavior. I know it's all my fault, but if you would have listened to ONE THING I had to say, I might not have

Dear Dad's new family,
I hope you'll all be very happy being blond together. May people speak only in inside voices for the rest of your lives.
P.S. Lydia, you wedding dress makes your arms look fat. ~ Ann Brashares

I am the most tired woman in the world. I am tired when I get up. Life requires an effort I cannot make. Please give me that heavy book. I need to put something heavy like that on top of my head. I have to place my feet under the pillows always, so as to be able to stay on earth. Otherwise I feel myself going away, going away at a tremendous speed, on account of my lightness. I know that I am dead. As soon as I utter a phrase my sincerity dies, becomes a lie whose coldness chills me. Don't say anything, because I see that you understand me, and I am afraid of your understanding. I have such a fear of finding another like myself, and such a desire to find one! I am so utterly lonely, but I also have such a fear that my isolation be broken through, and I no longer be the head and ruler of my universe. I am in great terror of your understanding by which you penetrate into my world; and then I stand revealed and I have to share my kingdom with you. ~ Anais Nin

I don't think you should make so many off-colour jokes about him becoming a cuckold. You're only getting away with it because he doesn't know what it means.' 'That's the beauty of the English language. One can wrap insults inside elegance, like popping anchovies into pastry. ~ Christopher Fowler

She saw poetry where other writers merely saw failure to cope with English. ~ Alice Walker

The most common way Jesus comes into our lives is through a broken heart. ~ Rick Warren

Jake had never felt like such a fool for keeping a promise. He'd broken plenty of others he should have kept. Why had he kept one he should have broken? ~ Randy Alcorn

Tonight, he'd looked broken. She'd been afraid to touch him, as if one brush of skin would send him shattering into a million pieces. But then she had, and he'd clung to her as if he'd been afraid to let go. Some people might see it as weakness, but she didn't. She knew how it felt to have life yank the rug out from under you. She knew what it meant to need someone to hold you, to share the weight of the world for a minute. For a second. She would have held him all night. And then her father had shown up to act like Detective Dickhead. As usual. ~ Brigid Kemmerer

People are unpredictable and predictable at the same time: it seems that whenever you want someone to surprise you they remain themselves, and those who were actually OK screw themselves over some way or another. People make stupid decisions on a regular basis but, worse, have stupid reasons for those decisions-because people are broken then forced together again in ways that they were probably never intended to be. ~ Helen Hiorns

Jamie let go of me. "Shut your mucky gob, man." He stepped close to our fearless leader in the dark, took hold of his jacket by the collar, and in a dead quiet voice that had gone dangerously Scots, threatened heatedly, "Talk like that again wi' these brave lassies listenin' an' Ah'll tear the filthy English tongue frae yer heid, so Ah will. ~ Elizabeth Wein

The diaries of opium-eaters record how, during the brief period of ecstasy, the drugged person's dreams have a temporal scope of ten, thirty, sometimes sixty years or even surpass all limits of man's ability to experience time
dreams, that is, whose imaginary time span vastly exceeds their actual duration and which are characterized by an incredible diminishment of the experience of time, with images thronging past so swiftly that, as one hashish-smoke puts it, the intoxicated user's brain seems to have something removed, like the mainspring from a broken watch. ~ Thomas Mann

Several sets of arms would embrace me. But in the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too. I reach out for him and say something like his name and he's there, holding me and patting my back. "It's okay. It'll be okay, sweetheart." He sits me on a length of broken marble pillar and keeps an arm around me while I sob. ~ Suzanne Collins

Hidden in the physical work space, in the user's words, and in the tools they use are the beautiful gems of knowledge that can create revolutionary, breakthrough products or simply fix existing, broken products. People do strange things - unexpected things - and being there to witness and record these minute and quick moments of humanity is simply invaluable ~ Jon Kolko

Some part of me must've thought that would fix everything. Things, don't just get fixed, though. Things get broken, and somtimes they stay that way. You just have to glue them together and hope it holds. ~ Lili St. Crow

What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused, or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winners were losers, successes failures, and rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to bodyguards, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere. ~ Joseph Heller

In living literature no person is a competent judge but of works written in his own language . I have expressed my opinion concerning a number of English writers; it is very possible that I may be mistaken, that my admiration and my censure may be equally misplaced, and that my conclusions may appear impertinent and ridiculous on the other side of the Channel. ~ Francois-Rene De Chateaubriand

I pulled up at home and saw Marlboro Man's truck next to the house. When I walked in the door of our little white house, he was there, sitting on the bench, taking off his boots.
"Hey," he said, leaning back against the wall. "How're you doing?"
"Better," I replied. "I had a Frosty."
He pulled off his left boot. "What'd you find out?"
"Well," I started. My lip began to quiver.
Marlboro Man stood up. "What's wrong?" he said.
"I'm p…" My lip quivered even more, making it difficult to speak. "I'm pregnant!" I cried. The tears started rolling.
"What?" he exclaimed, moving toward me. "Really?"
All I could do was nod. The lump in my throat was too big for me to talk.
"Oh, wow." He moved in, hugging me close. I guess he hadn't expected it either.
I just stood there and cried silently. For our past…for our future. For my nausea and my fatigue. For receiving a diagnosis.
As for Marlboro Man, he just stood there and held me as he always had when I'd broken into unanticipated crying attacks, all the while trying his best not to explode with excitement over the fact that his baby was growing in my belly. ~ Ree Drummond

We've got acetic acid cream, but no elemcet for pain.
Which do you think you'd need more on a rescue shuttle?
If we'd found anyone on that wreck with a bad case of genital warts, we'd have been set.
A broken bone?
You're out of luck. Just suck it up. ~ James S.A. Corey

The way she told it, the English counties are littered with aging spinsters who accidentally displayed a spark of intelligence at a debutante dance and were banished forever from civilized society ~ Michelle Cooper

The promise of America is one immigration policy for all who seek to enter our shores, whether they come from Mexico, Haiti or Canada, there must be one set of rules for everybody. We cannot welcome those to come and then try and act as though any culture will not be respected or treated inferior. We cannot look at the Latino community and preach 'one language.' No one gave them an English test before they sent them to Iraq to fight for America. ~ Al Sharpton

Howbeit, though no scholar, I am not one of those who misuse the English speech, and, being foolishly led by the hasty custom of scriveners and printers to write the letters "T" and "H" joined together, which resembleth a "Y," do incontinently jump to the conclusion the THE is pronounced "Ye,"
the like of which I never heard in all England. ~ Bret Harte

A lot of people who want to see the short story have a renaissance of readership - they tend to think of short stories, and sometimes poems too, as being well-suited to the way we now live, with all of these broken-up bits of time. I hope they're right, but my sense is that our fiction reading has become, if anything, more cherished as a kind of escape from fragmentation. ~ Lorin Stein

Has it ever occurred to you,' he said, 'that the whole history of English poetry has been de-termined by the fact that the English language lacks rhymes? ~ George Orwell

On the day of the show, I sit down with someone that speaks very good English and someone who speaks the local language very well and work out what I'm going to say. ~ Phil Collins

Be careful - my heart is broken - and you could fall in ~ John J. Geddes

A British imperium enabled Scots to feel themselves peers of the Ebglish in a way still denied them in an island kingdom. The language bears that out very clearly. The English and the foreign are still all too inclined to refer to the island of Great Britain as 'England'. But at no time have they ever customarily referred to an English empire. ~ Linda Colley

I had discarded pride, that useless burden of self-importance I had carried around like my portable vanity with its broken mirror. ~ Amy Tan