Theme

Philosophy quotes about language

Language appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat language as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

Why this theme matters

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Ludwig Wittgenstein and Kwasi Wiredu), language is framed through Analytic Philosophy and Africana Philosophy. Some passages define language; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language.

In the history of philosophy

Discussions of language travel through Africana and European modern traditions. Compare the quotations below with their school labels rather than forcing a single definition.

Thinkers in this collection

Ludwig Wittgenstein , John Stuart Mill , Voltaire , Epictetus , Elizabeth Anscombe , Sophie Oluwole , Audre Lorde , Averroes

Frequently asked questions

What did philosophers say about language?

They disagreed in productive ways. In this archive, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Kwasi Wiredu, and related voices treat language as something to clarify, cultivate, or critique—not merely to celebrate.

Where can I find philosophy quotes about language?

This theme page gathers 15 verified English quotations tagged Language, with links to thinkers and sources.

How should I read quotes about language?

Read the sentence, then check school and source. A compact line is an entry point into an argument about language, not a substitute for the surrounding text.

  1. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
  2. What we do is to bring words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use.
  3. The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
  4. The meaning of a word is its use in the language.
  5. He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.
  6. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
  7. Don’t think, but look!
  8. Be mostly silent, or speak only what is necessary.
  9. The most ordinary things escape notice precisely because they are ordinary.
  10. It would be a great improvement if, instead of "morally wrong," one always named a genus such as "untruthful," "unchaste," "unjust."
  11. What needs to be characterized and critically examined are African ideas and beliefs… philosophy is about what people say rather than what they do.
  12. Your silence will not protect you.
  13. Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.
  14. Assent is of three kinds: rhetorical, dialectical, and demonstrative; people differ in nature as to which kind persuades them.
  15. What revelation teaches by symbols, the philosopher may reach by demonstration; the two agree in substance for those who understand.
  16. Silence and limiting oneself to the apprehensions of the intellect are more appropriate with regard to God than speech.
  17. A language, most assuredly, is not conceptually neutral; syntax and vocabulary are apt to suggest definite modes of conceptualization.
  18. A theory of truth is not of any real universal significance unless it offers some account of the notion of being so.
  19. So for us African philosophy is a body of literature whose existence is undeniable, a bibliography which has grown constantly.
  20. I observe that it does exist, by the same right and in the same mode as all the philosophies of the world: in the form of a literature.
  21. The African who has learned philosophy in English, for example, has most likely become conceptually westernized to a large extent not by choice but by the force of historical circumstances.
  22. There is no one word in Akan for truth.