378. Language; Learning;
Literacy
"When a language begins to teem with
books, it is tending to
refinement; as those who undertake to teach others must have
undergone some labour in improving themselves, they set a
proportionate value on their own thoughts, and wish to enforce
them by efficacious expressions; speech becomes embodied and
permanent; different modes and phrases are compared, and the
best obtains an establishment. By degrees one age improves upon
another. Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance.
But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man
leaves his eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to
learn. There may possibly be books without a polished language,
but there can be no polished language without books."
Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
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1,426. Language
"Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but
the signs of ideas: I wish, however, that the instrument might
be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the
things they denote."
Johnson: Preface to the Dictionary
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1,464. Language
"Among those who have endeavoured to promote learning and rectify
judgment, it has long been customary to complain of the abuse
of words, which are often admitted to signify things so
different that, instead of assisting the understanding as
vehicles of knowledge, they produce error, dissension, and
perplexity, because what is affirmed in one sense is received in
another."
Johnson: Rambler #202 (February 22, 1752)
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1,469. Language
"Language is the dress of thought; and as the noblest mien or
most graceful action would be degraded and obscured by a garb
appropriated to the gross employments of rusticks or mechanics,
so the most heroick sentiments will lose their efficacy, and the
most splendid ideas drop their magnificence, if they are conveyed
by words used commonly upon low and trivial occasions, debased by
vulgar mouths, and contaminated by inelegant applications."
Johnson: Cowley (Lives of the Poets)
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1,494. Language
"I believe that whoever knows the English tongue, in its present
extent, will be able to express his thoughts without further
help from other nations."
Johnson: Rambler #208 (March 14, 1752)
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1,586. Language
"There is no tracing the connection of ancient nations, but by
language; and therefore I am always sorry when any language is
lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations."
Boswell: Tour of the Hebrides
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1,709. Language
"If the changes we fear be thus irresistible, what remains but to
acquiesce with silence, as in the other insurmountable distresses
of humanity? it remains that we retard what we cannot repel, that
we palliate what we cannot cure. Life may be lengthened by care,
though death cannot be ultimately defeated: tongues, like
governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration; we have
long preserved our constitution, let us make some struggles for
our language."
Johnson: Preface to the Dictionary
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1,838. The Grass Is Always Greener...;
Language; Waste
"To make the way to learning either less short or less smooth,
is certainly absurd; yet this is the apparent effect of the
prejudice which seems to prevail among us in favour of foreign
authors, and of the contempt of our native literature, which this
excursive curiosity must necessarily produce. Every man is more
speedily instructed by his own language than by any other; before
we search the rest of the world for teachers, let us try whether
we may not spare our trouble by finding them at home."
Johnson: Idler #91 (January 12, 1760)
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1,839. Language
"I am far from intending to insinuate, that other languages are
not necessary to him who aspires to eminence, and whose whole
life is devoted to study; but to him who reads only for
amusement, or whose purpose is not to deck himself with the
honours of literature, but to be qualified for domestick
usefulness, and sit down content with subordinate reputation,
we have authors sufficient to fill up all the vacancies of
his time, and gratify most of his wishes for information."
Johnson: Idler #91 (January 12, 1760)
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