Wilhelm Von Humboldt Language Quotes & Sayings

Language is deeply entwined in the intellectual development of humanity itself, it accompanies the latter upon every step of its localized progression or regression; moreover, the pertinent cultural level in each case is recognizable in it ... Language is, as it were, the external manifestation of the minds of peoples. Their language is their soul, and their soul is their language. It is impossible to conceive them ever sufficiently identical ... The creation of language is an innate necessity of humanity. It is not a mere external vehicle, designed to sustain social intercourse, but an indispensable factor for the development of human intellectual powers, culminating in the formulation of philosophical doctrine. — Wilhelm Von Humboldt

Absolutely nothing is so important for a nation's culture as its language. — Wilhelm Von Humboldt

One must not consider a language as a product dead, and formed but once; it is an animate being, and ever creative. Human thought elaborates itself with the progress of intelligence; and of this thought language is a manifestation. An idiom cannot therefore remain stationary; it walks, it develops, it grows up, it fortifies itself, it becomes old, and it reaches decrepitude. — Wilhelm Von Humboldt

Language is the spiritual exhalation of the nation. — Wilhelm Von Humboldt

Samskrit is the unsurpassed zenith in the whole development of languages yet known to us. — Wilhelm Von Humboldt

Language makes infinite use of finite media. — Wilhelm Von Humboldt