Edward Sapir quotes

Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. (Edward Sapir)
No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. View quote
Edward Sapir
Cultural anthropology is not valuable because it uncovers the archaic in the psychological sense. It is valuable because it is constantly rediscovering the normal. View quote
Edward Sapir
Fashion is custom in the guise of departure from custom. View quote
Edward Sapir
No important national language, at least in the Occidental world, has complete regularity of grammatical structure, nor is there a single logical category which is adequately and consistently handled in terms of linguistic symbolism. View quote
Edward Sapir
Impatience translates itself into a desire to have something immediate done about it all, and, as is generally the case with impatience, resolves itself in the easiest way that lies ready to hand. View quote
Edward Sapir
Cultural anthropology is more and more rapidly getting to realize itself as a strictly historical science. View quote
Edward Sapir
Were a language ever completely "grammatical" it would be a perfect engine of conceptual expression. Unfortunately, or luckily, no language is tyrannically consistent. All grammars leak. View quote
Edward Sapir
A logical analysis of reflexive usages in French shows, however, that this simplicity is an illusion and that, so far from helping the foreigner, it is more calculated to bother him. View quote
Edward Sapir
Human beings do not wish to be modest; they want to be as expressive - that is, as immodest - as fear allows; fashion helps them solve that paradoxical problem. View quote
Edward Sapir
Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generations. (Edward Sapir)
We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation. View quote
Edward Sapir
It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. View quote
Edward Sapir
One of the glories of English simplicity is the possibility of using the same word as noun and verb. View quote
Edward Sapir
A standard international language should not only be simple, regular, and logical, but also rich and creative. View quote
Edward Sapir
As a matter of fact, a national language which spreads beyond its own confines very quickly loses much of its original richness of content and is in no better case than a constructed language. View quote
Edward Sapir
It is no secret that the fruits of language study are in no sort of relation to the labour spent on teaching and learning them. View quote
Edward Sapir
The attitude of independence toward a constructed language which all national speakers must adopt is really a great advantage, because it tends to make man see himself as the master of language instead of its obedient servant. View quote
Edward Sapir
Comparison of statements made at different periods frequently enable us to give maximal and minimal dates to the appearance of a cultural element or to assign the time limits to a movement of population. View quote
Edward Sapir
National languages are all huge systems of vested interests which sullenly resist critical inquiry. View quote
Edward Sapir
English, once accepted as an international language, is no more secure than French has proved to be as the one and only accepted language of diplomacy or as Latin has proved to be as the international language of science. (Edward Sapir)
So far as the advocates of a constructed international language are concerned, it is rather to be wondered at how much in common their proposals actually have, both in vocabulary and in general spirit of procedure. View quote
Edward Sapir
I am convinced that the stratigraphic method will in the future enable archaeology to throw far more light on the history of American culture than it has done in the past. View quote
Edward Sapir
The spirit of logical analysis should in practice blend with the practical pressure for the adoption of some form of international language, but it should not allow itself to be stampeded by it. View quote
Edward Sapir
More and more, unsolicited gifts from without are likely to be received with unconscious resentment. View quote
Edward Sapir