50 Language Quotes For Better Communication

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published December 7, 2022

Check out these language quotes and gain insight into one of humanity’s greatest assets, our communication ability.

The concept of “language” can cover many areas.

Communication is not limited to the expression of words to one another.

Tell us your favorite language quote in the comment section below.

What are the benefits of reading these language quotes?

We have many forms of language we rely on.

Many things other than words can communicate information to us, like:

body language
facial expressions
pheromones

Language is something we never truly master as we always have room for growth.

After all, even the most eloquent speakers always seek to improve their communication skills.

An old Czech proverb says, “Learn a new language and get a new soul.”

Learning a new language ignites our minds and allows us to understand and feel in completely new ways.

Across the globe, many people are fluent in more than one language.

Even here in the United States, more young people are growing up bi-lingual and even tri-lingual.

Short language quotes

1. “Language is wine upon the lips.” — Virginia Woolf

2. “Learn a language, and you’ll avoid a war.” — Arab Proverb

3. “Learn a new language and get a new soul.” — Czech proverb

4. “A different language is a different vision of life.” — Federico Fellini

5. “Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.” — Roger Bacon

6. “Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye.” — William Gibson

7. “To have another language is to possess a second soul.” — Charlemagne

8. “Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.” — Amy Chua

9. “A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” — William Arthur Ward

10. “The more languages you know, the more you are human.” — Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk

You will also enjoy our article on translation quotes.

Wise language quotes

11. “Language is the dress of thought.” — Samuel Johnson

12. “With languages you are at home anywhere.” — Edmund De Waal

13. “Silence is the language of god. All else is poor translation.” — Rumi

14. “Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world.” — Rumi

15. “A man who knows two languages is worth two men.” — French proverb

16. “Change your language, and you change your thoughts.” — Karl Albrecht

17. “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.” — William Butler Yeats

18. “The most intimate temper of a people, its deepest soul, is above all in its language.” — Jules Michelet

19. “Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

20. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” — Nelson Mandela

You will also enjoy our article on snap quotes.

Learning language quotes

21. “Learning another language is like becoming another person.” — Haruki Murakami

22. “The conquest of learning is achieved through the knowledge of languages.” — Roger Bacon

23. “You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.” — Geoffrey Willans

24. “We should learn languages because language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly.” — Kató Lomb

25. “One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” — Frank Smith

26. “You live a new life for every language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.” — Czech proverb

27. “One who speaks only one language is one person, but one who speaks two languages is two people.” — Turkish proverb

28. “Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club—the community of speakers of that language.” — Frank Smith

29. “Any time you think some other language is strange, remember that yours is just as strange. You’re just used to it.” — Unknown

30. “Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.” — Flora Lewis

You will also enjoy our article on SLP quotes.

What things can be language quotes

31. “Coffee is a language in itself.” — Jackie Chan

32. “Tears are the silent language of grief.” — Voltaire

33. “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.” — Rita Dove

34. “Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.” — Martha Graham

35. “The art of communication is the language of leadership.” — James Humes

36. “Music is the universal language of mankind.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

37. “The language of friendship is not words but meanings.” — Henry David Thoreau

38. “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear, and the blind can see.” — Unknown

39. “A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.” — Cesar Chavez

40. “Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes

More language quotes to ponder

41. “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” — Ludwig Wittgenstein

42. “Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides.” — Rita Mae Brown

43. “If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.” — Ludwig Wittgenstein

44. “A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language.” — Gaston Bachelard

45. “Language shapes the way we think and determines what we can think about.” — Benjamin Lee Whorf

46. “Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

47. “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” — Rita Mae Brown

48. “It is astonishing how much enjoyment one can get out of a language that one understands imperfectly.” — Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve

49. “Language comes first. It’s not that language grows out of consciousness. If you haven’t got language, you can’t be conscious.” — Alan Moore

50. “The development of language is part of the development of the personality, for words are the natural means of expressing thoughts and establishing understanding between people.” — Maria Montessori

Have you given language this much thought?

For anyone who has ever been in a foreign environment, not having a full understanding of what is being said can be a limiting and stressful experience.

The ability to code-switch or adjust to different environments is a much-needed skill.

Even a simple doctor visit, a trip to the mechanic, or a conversation with a lawyer can cause us to feel anxiety once professional jargon and concepts are relayed to us.

Everyone prefers to be communicated within forms of language that are familiar to them.

Humans have a more intimate understanding of things when they are shared in language that resonates with us.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela once quipped, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”