His captivating speech came not from his grammar or vocabulary but from the joy he took in wielding them well.

Thousands of miles from Georgia, beginning that night in England, my dad became a foreign-language speaker to me – and I was utterly charmed by it. I found the foreigner in myself.

Arguments about language are usually arguments about politics, disguised and channeled through one of our most distinctive markers of identity.

There is really only one way to learn good writing: good reading and extensive writing and revising.

Yesterday's abomination is today's rule.

If you look at the historical record, you will find that language has always been in decline. Which means, really, and it never has.

Too many people are too angry about language too much of the time. This time could be better spent listening, learning, and enjoying the vast variety of human language around them.

I'd start to explain with the outward sheepish and inner pride of the nerd.

You can't expect the level of excitement of your audience to be greater than your own.

anger of any kind is a dangerous emotion, it eats at the nerves and eventually makes you careless

I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.

I did not know that children think the hard questions they ask are easy and thus expect easy answers to them, and that they are disappointed when they get cautious, complex answers.

The thing I can say about Japan is they were progressive for a country that is very male dominant.

The tears had turned to ink.

[ on the "tropicalization" of intellectual property laws ] To make the digital world join in the samba.

In the marriage union, the independence of the husband and wife will be equal, their dependence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal.

Only when the child is able to identify its own center with the center of the universe does education really begin.

Music must be supported by the king and the princes, for the maintenance of the arts is their duty no less than the maintenance of the laws.