People who speak the same language can hate one another as easily as can people who speak unrelated languages.

In place of science, the Eskimo has only magic to bridge the gap between what he can understand and what is not known. Without magic, his life would be one long panic.

Letters to the editors of English and American newspapers often contain expressions of horror about the new terms that creep into the language, and these expressions are usually accompanied by dire predictions about ruination of the mother tongue.

A complex society is not necessarily more advanced than a simple one; it has just adapted to conditions in a more complicated way.

Native speakers of a language know intuitively whether a sentence is grammatical or not. They usually cannot specify exactly what is wrong, and very possibly they make the same mistakes in their own speech, but they know-unconsciously, not as a set of rules they learned in school-when a sentence is incorrect.

Language does not stand still. Surprisingly, despite this knowledge, most speakers are fearful of change.

The environment does not determine man's culture; it merely sets the outer limits and at the same time offers opportunities.