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Languages, we know, do not stand still. New words are borrowed or invented. Others become obsolete. Morphology alters. So does pronunciation. Words are tools we use to communicate; they bend to our needs. Many change their meanings. Some acquire prestige, and others are degraded.

— Henry Hitchings

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Communication

More quotes by Henry Hitchings

Early experience conditions adult life; childhood is the precinct in which we learn the rituals of maturity.

Etymology is perennially fascinating because it revives the forgotten poetry of the everyday.

The eighteenth century was seized by a rage for order, manifest in a range of new phenomena: the price tag, standardised weights and measures, the proliferation of signposts on public highways, the increased use of account books and calendars.

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Strength of creative writing lies in the skill of handling words and articulating artistic expression of feelings.”

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An entire mythology is stored within our language.

Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993)

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

George Eliot

Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth,
When thought is speech, and speech is truth.

Walter Scott Marmion (1808)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Henry Hitchings (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.