"The force of a language does not..." - Quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The force of a language does not consist of rejecting what is foreign but of swallowing it.
More by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“To every one [Nature] appears in a form of his own. She hides herself in a thousand names and terms, and is always the same.”
“As for solitude, I cannot understand how certain people seek to lay claim to intellectual stature, nobility of soul and strength of character, yet have not the slightest feeling for seclusion; for solitude, I maintain, when joined with a quiet contemplation of nature, a serene and conscious faith in creation and the Creator, and a few vexations from outside is the only school for a mind of lofty endowment.”
“The rabble also vent their rage in words.[Ger., Es macht das Volk sich auch mit Worten Lust.]”
More on Language
“There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with the names of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.”
“'Warm in December, cold in June, you say?'I don't suppose the water's changed at all.You and I know enough to know it's warmCompared with cold, and cold compared with warm.But all the fun's in how you say a thing.”
“The English talked with inflected phrases. One phrase to mean everything.”
More on Adaptation
“The man who is too set to change is dead already. The funeral is a mere detail.”
“Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. If a man habituated to a narrow circle of cares and pleasures, out of which he seldom travels, step beyond it, though for never so brief a space, his departure from the monotonous scene on which he has been an actor of importance would seem to be the signal for instant confusion. The mine which Time has slowly dug beneath familiar objects is sprung in an instant; and what was rock before, becomes but sand and dust.”
“Eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation.”