30 Inspirational Quotes About Language Learning
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Words from philosophers, polyglots, writers, and leaders on why learning a language changes everything.
Language Shapes How We Think
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921)
“Language is the dress of thought.”
— Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
“Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (1860)
“A different language is a different vision of life.”
— Federico Fellini, Italian film director
“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.”
— Flora Lewis, The New York Times foreign correspondent
“The diversity of languages is not a diversity of signs and sounds but a diversity of views of the world.”
— Wilhelm von Humboldt, German philosopher and linguist
“I was beginning to think in Greek. That is the great Rubicon to cross in learning any language.”
— C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (1955)
Why Learn a Language
“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, former President of South Africa
“He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet and statesman
“Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.”
— Roger Bacon, 13th-century English philosopher
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.”
— Frank Smith, psycholinguist
“You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.”
— Geoffrey Willans, British author
“To have another language is to possess a second soul.”
— Attributed to Charlemagne (Holy Roman Emperor); the attribution is widely repeated but not historically verified
“You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.”
— Czech proverb (from the saying: Kolik řečí znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem. — “As many languages as you know, as many times you are a human being.”)
“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.”
— Chinese proverb
Inside the Polyglot Mind
“Language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly.”
— Kató Lomb, Hungarian polyglot and simultaneous interpreter (worked professionally in 16 languages)
“Language is not a genetic gift, it is a social gift. Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club — the community of speakers of that language.”
— Frank Smith, psycholinguist
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
— Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech (1993)
“He that is acquainted with only one language, will probably always remain in some degree the slave of language. But the man who is competent to and exercised in the comparison of languages, has attained to his proper elevation. Language is not his master, but he is the master of language.”
— William Godwin, The Enquirer (1797)
“Reality is constructed by languages, and the existence of a variety of languages means the existence of a variety of realities, a variety of truths.”
— Minae Mizumura, The Fall of Language in the Age of English
“In what language am I, suis-je, bin ich, when I am inmost? What is the tone of the self?”
— George Steiner, After Babel (1975)
“Every word is a bird we teach to sing.”
— Daniel Tammet, autistic savant and polyglot, Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing (2017)
The Journey: Practice, Mistakes, and Persistence
“Invested Time × Motivation / Inhibition = Result.”
— Kató Lomb, Hungarian polyglot — her formula for language learning success. Motivation is in the numerator; fear of mistakes is in the denominator.
“Not having heard of it is not as good as having seen it. Having seen it is not as good as knowing it. Knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice.”
— Xunzi (荀子), Chinese philosopher, 3rd century BCE — the original source of what later evolved into “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.”
“Sbagliando s’impara.” (You learn by making mistakes.)
— Italian proverb
“I have learned more languages since the age of 60 than prior to the age of 60.”
— Steve Kaufmann, Canadian polyglot and founder of LingQ (speaks 20+ languages)
“If you’re going to learn a new language, you can’t try to be perfect. You’ll stop yourself from talking. You just have to let go.”
— Yao Ming, Chinese basketball player who learned English after moving to the NBA
“There is no such thing as an ugly accent. Saying there is, is like saying there’s an ugly flower.”
— David Crystal, British linguist
“Aim to make at least 200 mistakes a day. The more mistakes you make, the faster you become a confident language learner.”
— Benny Lewis, Irish polyglot and author of Fluent in 3 Months
“We acquire language in only one way: by understanding messages, or obtaining ‘comprehensible input’ in a low-anxiety situation.”
— Stephen Krashen, linguist and language acquisition researcher, The Power of Reading
Language learning is not about arriving — it is about expanding. Each new word, each new phrase, each new mistake is a step into a wider world. As Kató Lomb put it: so many languages, so many years left to learn them.
If these quotes have inspired you to pick up a new language, OpenL offers free translation across 100+ languages — useful when you need a quick grasp of a phrase in a language you are just beginning to learn. For a deeper dive into a specific language, check out our guide to Catalan, a Romance language with a rich political and cultural story.
Sources
- Ludwig Wittgenstein — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — Proposition 5.6
- Samuel Johnson — Lives of the English Poets — “Life of Cowley”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. — The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (1860) — Chapter II
- Wilhelm von Humboldt — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — on the diversity of worldviews
- C.S. Lewis — Surprised by Joy (1955) — Chapter IX
- Nelson Mandela — Oxford Essential Quotations — verified quote
- Goethe — Britannica — widely anthologized in Maxims and Reflections
- Roger Bacon — Durham University — on languages and knowledge
- Charlemagne “Second Soul” — Quid Plura? blog — tracing the misattribution to 1989 UPI
- Czech proverb — Wikipedia Reference Desk — analysis of the proverb’s origin
- Kató Lomb — Polyglot: How I Learn Languages — free English translation (TESL-EJ)
- George Steiner — After Babel (1975) — on translation and multilingual identity
- William Godwin — The Enquirer (1797) — on the multilingual mind
- Minae Mizumura — The Fall of Language in the Age of English — Columbia University Press
- Toni Morrison — Nobel Lecture (1993) — Nobel Prize in Literature
- Daniel Tammet — Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing — memoir (2017)
- Xunzi — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Chapter 8, “The Achievements of the Ru”
- Quote Investigator — “Tell Me and I Forget” — origin tracing to Xunzi
- David Crystal — official site — British linguist and author
- Steve Kaufmann — Montreal Gazette — profile of the Lingly founder
- Benny Lewis — Fluent in 3 Months — Daily Mail interview on embracing mistakes
- Stephen Krashen — The Power of Reading — on comprehensible input and language acquisition
- EF Education First — 50 Inspiring Quotes About Languages — reference quote collection
- Flora Lewis — New York Times obituary — career overview; the language quote is widely attributed to her body of work as a foreign correspondent
- Frank Smith — psycholinguist bibliography — Ourselves: Why We Are Who We Are (2006); his language quotes circulate widely in literacy and language education contexts
