Private Language Quotes

England is not the jewelled isle of Shakespeare's much-quoted message, nor is it the inferno depicted by Dr Goebbels. More than either it resembles a family, a rather stuffy Victorian family, with not many black sheep in it but with all its cupboards bursting with skeletons. It has rich relations who have to be kow-towed to and poor relations who are horribly sat upon, and there is a deep conspiracy of silence about the source of the family income. It is a family in which the young are generally thwarted and most of the power is in the hands of irresponsible uncles and bedridden aunts. Still, it is a family. It has its private language and its common memories, and at the approach of an enemy it closes its ranks. A family with the wrong members in control - that, perhaps is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase. ~ George Orwell

Theirs was a private language, not shared with the rest of the world, and so exempt from censure, sheer burlesque. ~ Stewart O'Nan

Classical and romantic: private language of a family quarrel, a dead dispute over the distribution of emphasis between man and nature. ~ Cyril Connolly

This is how Tack and Raven work: It's their private language of push and return, argument and concession. With the cure, relationships are all the same, and rules and expectations are defined. Without the cure, relationships must be reinvented every day, languages constantly decoded and deciphered. ~ Lauren Oliver

There is no such thing as a perfect phrase, or a private language, and . . . time only runs the one way. ~ Garth Risk Hallberg

You are concerned citizens." He knew about concerned citizens. Wherever they were, they all spoke the same private language, where "traditional values" meant "hang someone." He did not have a problem with this, broadly speaking, but it never hurt to understand your employer. ~ Terry Pratchett

Ah," said Mr Pin. "Right. I remember. You are concerned citizens." He knew about concerned citizens. Wherever they were, they all spoke the same private language, where 'traditional values' meant 'hang someone'. ~ Terry Pratchett

What captivated me about you was that you opened the door to another world for me. The values that dominated my childhood had no place there. That world enchanted me. I could leave the real world behind and be someone else, without any ties or obligations. With you, I was elsewhere, in a foreign place, foreign to myself. You gave me access to another dimension when I'd always rejected any fixed identity and just worn different identities on top of each other, though none of them were mine.
By speaking to you in English, I made your language mine. I've continued to talk to you in English right up to this day, even when you answered me in French. For me, English, which I knew mainly through you and through books, was from the start like a private language that preserved our intimacy against the intrusion of the real world, and its prevailing social normals. I felt like I was building a protected and protective world with you. ~ Andre Gorz

People always make the mistake of thinking art is created for them. But really, art is a private language for sophisticates to congratulate themselves on their superiority to the rest of the world. As my artist's statement explains, my work is utterly incomprehensible and is therefore full of deep significance. ~ Bill Watterson

To see beauty is to learn the private language of meaning which is another's life - to recognize and relish what is. beauty must be defined as what we are, or else the concept itself is our enemy. why languish in the shadow of a standard we cannot personify, an ideal we cannot live? ~ CrimethInc.

He senses a certain receptivity in her expression, like she's gathering information about his feelings, something they have learned to do to each other over a long time, like speaking a private language. ~ Sally Rooney

If the Mentalese story about the content of thought is true, then there couldn't be a private language argument. Good. That explains why there isn't one. (In Critical Condition, p. 68) ~ Jerry A. Fodor

The only private language I know is self-exaggeration. I think I've grown a second self in this room. It's the self-important fool that keeps the writer going. I exaggerate the pain of writing, the pain of solitude, the failure, the rage, the confusion, the helplessness, the fear, the humiliation. The narrower the boundaries of my life, the more I exaggerate myself. If the pain is real, why do I inflate it? Maybe this is the only pleasure I'm allowed. ~ Don DeLillo

Physicists only talk to physicists, economists to economists-worse still, nuclear physicists only talk to nuclear physicists and econometricians to econometricians. One wonders sometimes if science will not grind to a stop in an assemblage of walled-in hermits, each mumbling to himself words in a private language that only he can understand. ~ Kenneth E. Boulding

I always lived in a multilingual society (Polish-Ukrainian, German-Ukrainian, English-Ukrainian), and was open to outside linguistic influences. I think it was within three years of coming to the US that I started writing in English, although purely for myself, not trying to get it published. Living in America, I was constantly in touch with English, and Ukrainian was for me a private language. ~ Yuriy Tarnawsky

In the first few pages, Kundera discusses several abstract historical figures: Robespierre, Nietzsche, Hitler. For Eunice's sake, I wanted him to get to the plot, to introduce actual "living" characters - I recalled this was a love story - and to leave the world of ideas behind. Here we were, two people lying in bed, Eunice's worried head propped on my collarbone, and I wanted us to feel something in common. I wanted this complex language, this surge of intellect, to be processed into love. Isn't that how they used to do it a century ago, people reading poetry to one another? ~ Gary Shteyngart

Morals are a matter of private agreement; decency is of public concern. ~ Marguerite Yourcenar

Marriage is a ghastly public confession of a strictly private intention. ~ John Hay Beith

Death is a dramatic accomplishment of absence; language may be almost as effective. ~ Janet Frame

The poet, in the novelty of his images, is always the origin of language. ~ Gaston Bachelard

The essence of the modern state is that the universal be bound up with the complete freedom of its particular members and with private well-being, that thus the interests of family and civil society must concentrate themselves on the state. It is only when both these moments subsist in their strength that the state can be regarded as articulated and genuinely organized. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

The hastily crafted [stimulus] bill, with its corrupt funding of ACORN and other favors, is a disgracefully irresponsible effort to expand the public sector, diminish the private sector, empower the autocrats, and further divest us of our individual liberties - all at the expense of present and future generations. ~ David Limbaugh

When people start talking about enjambment and line endings, I always shut them up. This is not something to talk about, this is a private matter, it's up to the poet. ~ James Tate

Before playing football, I didn't fit in anywhere. My parents didn't have a lot of money, which they spent on our education to send us to Catholic private school in Oakland, mostly black. The other kids had more money than I did. I started school early; I was young. So I'd come back to my hood and read. ~ Ryan Coogler

You will criticize me, reader, for writing in a style six hundred years removed from the events I describe, but you came to me for explanation of those days of transformation which left your world the world it is, and since it was the philosophy of the Eighteenth Century, heavy with optimism and ambition, whose abrupt revival birthed the recent revolution, so it is only in the language of the Enlightenment, rich with opinion and sentiment, that those days can be described. You must forgive me my 'thee's and 'thou's and 'he's and 'she's, my lack of modern words and modern objectivity. It will be hard at first, but whether you are my contemporary still awed by the new order, or an historian gazing back at my Twenty-Fifth Century as remotely as I gaze back on the Eighteenth, you will find yourself more fluent in the language of the past than you imagined; we all are. ~ Ada Palmer

Once upon a time in the land of Shinar, God came down to see the city and the tower. People were united and spoke in one language. Then God confound their language and caused them scattered all over the planet earth. I believe, because of our technology, there will be one computer-based language on earth. Then God will come back again and make us all scattered all over the stars constellation. ~ Toba Beta

I've certainly had less practice at fatherhood than I have at acting, but in fatherhood, at least my failures are private! ~ Rich Sommer

I went to an all-girls private school, where we played field hockey and lacrosse. ~ Nicole Ari Parker

A written discourse on any subject is bound to contain much that is fanciful. ~ Plato

A small knowledge of human nature will convince us, that, with far the greatest part of mankind, interest is the governing principle ... Few men are capable of making a continual sacrifice of all views of private interest, or advantage, to the common good. It is vain to exclaim against the depravity of human nature on this account; the fact is so, the experience of every age and nation has proved it and we must in a great measure, change the constitution of man, before we can make it otherwise. No institution, not built on the presumptive truth of these maxims can succeed. ~ George Washington

He put his hands down slowly, saying something to Leigha in a language she didn't understand. His eyes glassed over. "My little angel," he repeated in English.
Her nerves came undone at the sight before her. Was this the him her father warned her about? She tried to mask her fear. "How can I help you?" Her soft voice didn't carry far in the empty space.
He stretched out his hand, motioning her to two chairs. "Please, come. Sit down. We have much to talk about. I mean you no harm."
"Who are you?" The words forced out of her mouth of their own volition. She started to freak out. Her hands shook as she smoothed them over the top of her head. ~ Kenzie Macallan

Poetry is the art of using language to transcend language. ~ Laurence Overmire

He had made a vow, a private promise to the world in the long dark watches of the night, that if he did survive then in the great afterward he would always try to be kind, to live a good, quiet life. Like Candide, he would cultivate his garden. quietly. And that would be his redemption. Even if he could add only a feather to the balance it would be some kind of repayment for being spared. When it was all over and the reckoning fell due, it may be that he would be in need of that feather. ~ Kate Atkinson

It's much easier to identify and fix problems in language and timing when you hear the words being read. ~ Jesse Kellerman

At the beginning of history there was also a garden and a command. God put Adam and Eve in that garden, and they were told not to eat of the Tree. The direction was: "Obey me about the Tree, and you will live" - obey me and I'll bless you. But they disobeyed.

Now there is another garden, and a Second Adam, and another command. Jesus Christ has been sent by the Father to go to the cross, which is also a tree. To the first Adam he said, "Obey me about the Tree and I will bless you" - and Adam didn't do it. But to the second Adam he says, "Obey me about the Tree and I will crush you" - and Jesus does.

Jesus is the first and last person in history to be told that obedience would bring a curse. The Father is saying, essentially, "If you obey me, if you are faithful to me, I will forsake you, cast you off and send your soul into hell." And yet Jesus obeyed. Even as he was dying, abandoned by his Father, he called him "My God" - words that in the Bible were covenant language, conveying intimacy. Even though he was being forsaken, Jesus was still obeying. ~ Timothy J. Keller

The use of the word person in every European language to signify a human individual is unintentionally appropriate; persona really means a player's mask, and it is quite certain that no one shows himself as he is, but that each wears a mask and plays a role. In general, the whole of social life is a continual comedy, which the worthy find insipid, whilst the stupid delight in it greatly. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Virginia Woolf said that people read fiction the same way they listen to gossip, so if you're reading this at all then you might as well read my private asides written so he'll read it. I have to be extremely funny and wonderful around him just to get his attention at all and it's a shame to let it all go for one person. ~ Eve Babitz

I fantasized about having a mother who was also raised on Sesame Street, Happy Meals, and John Hughes movies. Maybe she could ask me white mom questions like "How are you feeling?" or say white mom things like "I love you to the moon and back." We would share the same first language. She could help me pick out a dress that I actually liked, instead of the dress that was most discounted. We would understand each other and not fight as much. ~ Ali Wong

Going beyond thoughts is merely to reduce the multiplicity of your thought.
Thoughts lead to words, words to language, language to action.
Action to realization, and back again to thoughts.
For the mind is made up of words, language and logic, until it dissolves into consciousness. ~ Gian Kumar

The poetry of God is often written with stanzas of tears. Life can be brutal and difficult to understand. We sometimes find ourselves heart-broken and weeping over its circumstances. But God cares and understands. Tears have a language all their own, and tear-filled eyes are not a sign of faltering faith, but of our humanity. If God has put the love in your heart, He also understands its frailty and your tears. ~ Ron Lambros

I decided to come back and teach goodness in this business. To teach love, because music is the universal language. We are God's bouquet, and through music we become one. ~ Little Richard

If you educate a man, you educate an individual; education contributes to his individual growth; it becomes his 'private property', as it were. But when you educate a woman, you educate the entire family! ~ Dada J.P. Vaswani

We all perform balancing acts between self and family, individual and community, private desire and group expectation. Gay people in particular must break with the groupthink of church and society in order to live their own lives. (It's why you still see half-read copies of Atlas Shrugged on the night tables of otherwise intelligent gay men.) ~ Christopher Bram

Funny how any sentence that started with "honestly" usually wasn't. ~ Jay Bell

The labor unions shall have a square deal, and the corporations shall have a square deal, and in addition, all private citizens shall have a square deal. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

They don't talk the same language as us. I don't mean that they don't speak English, but that their minds are different. They're like animals, and because I hate the sight and sound of them, and because you're a Britisher, I'm telling you to get out now while the going's good. ~ Eric Ambler

Emotional leakage refers to emotional information that we pass on to others through our body language. This information might be conveyed unintentionally, through a threatening gaze, a haughty stare, or a cold or aloof manner. These micro-expressions may be fleeting, but audiences are able
to detect them. Guard against emotional leakage. ~ Bruna Martinuzzi

The English and the Americans were divided by a common language. ~ Jeffrey Archer

The seven of us on board [the Space Shuttle] represented five different religions. But we were all agreed - it just doesn't make sense how people on earth treat each other. It doesn't make any difference what language we speak. It doesn't make any difference what country we come from. It certainly doesn't make any difference what the color of our skin is. We are all children of God traveling on spaceship earth together. ~ Jake Garn

Of course the other and more serious way in which it all happens is that one finds in poems and language some quality one appropriates for oneself and wishes to reproduce. ~ Robert Fitzgerald

It was the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, not a private trade association, that pioneered the practice of redlining, selectively granting loans and insisting that any property it insured be covered by a restrictive covenant-a clause in the deed forbidding sale of the property to anyone other than whites. Millions of dollars flowed from tax coffers into segregated white neighborhoods. ~ Ta-Nehisi Coates

I love you. ... they are the three most abused and underused words in the English language. ~ Andrea Boeshaar

Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution - the 60's comes from it. ~ Leonard Bernstein

Bastards too have a right to their private lives. ~ Stieg Larsson

The three social influences that we have emphasized - information, peer pressure, and priming - can easily be enlisted by private and public nudgers. As we will see, both business and governments can use the power of social influence to promote many good (and bad) causes. ~ Richard H. Thaler

There are some dreams you do wake up from, only to find you can't remember them at all. But that doesn't mean these dreams don't matter ...
These are dream that hold our most private of truths.
These are the dreams that destinies are made of. ~ Stephanie Kuehn

Love had to be deeper than that, than a glance over tea, which was indicative but not dispositive. ~ Michael Callahan

I know how to say 'no' in twelve languages. That's enough for a woman. ~ Sophia Loren

We know that to become a Christian we shouldn't try to fix ourselves up, but when it comes to praying we completely forget that. We'll sing the old gospel hymn, "Just as I Am," but when it comes to praying, we don't come just as we are. We try, like adults, to fix ourselves up. Private, personal prayer is one of the last great bastions of legalism. In order to pray like a child, you might need to unlearn the nonpersonal, nonreal praying that you've been taught. ~ Paul Miller

it was montage that gave birth to film as an art, setting it apart from mere animated photography, in short, creating a language. ~ Andre Bazin

Words are not cubicles for truth telling. Words do not allow us to touch the face of God or define the contours of the soul. Words are imprecise and cannot capture all aspects of reality or replicate all facets of a person's emotional mélange. Language allows for limited explorations of reality and minimal probing of the human mind. I accept that the only possible relation between language and the world is the image displayed in each person's head by the picture invoking ability of language. Select word pictures might accurately portray what I perceive and still be vague, blatantly inaccurate, completely meaningless, misleading, distorted, or incomprehensible in other persons' minds. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Where psychedelics comes together with that is that it's going to require a transformation of human language and understanding to stop the momentum of the historical process, to halt nuclear proliferation, germ warfare, infantile 19th century politics, all these things. It cannot be accomplished through a frontal assault upon it by political means. ~ Terence McKenna

The assumption behind any theology that I've ever been familiar with is that there is a profound beauty in being, simply in itself. Poetry, at least traditionally, has been an educing of the beauty of language, the beauty of experience, the beauty of the working of the mind, and so on. The pastor does, indeed, appreciate it. ~ Marilynne Robinson

The adjectives that are in the book ["Win"] - passion, persuasion, persistence, perfection, prioritization, being people-centered - none of them are as important as principles. Without principles, the language will fail. ~ Frank Luntz