The difficulty of learning the dead languages does not arise from any superior abstruseness in the languages themselves, but in their being dead, and the pronunciation entirely lost. It would be the same thing with any other language when it becomes dead. The best Greek linguist that now exists does not understand Greek so well as a Grecian plowman did, or a Grecian milkmaid; and the same for the Latin, compared with a plowman or a milkmaid of the Romans; and with respect to pronunciation and idiom, not so well as the cows that she milked. It would therefore be advantageous to the state of learning to abolish the study of the dead languages, and to make learning consist, as it originally did, in scientific knowledge.

Je mehr man in einer Sprache durch Vernunft unterscheiden lernt, desto schwerer wird einem das Sprechen derselben. Im Fertig-Sprechen ist viel Instinktmäßiges, durch Vernunft läßt es sich nicht erreichen.

... you are never so smart again in a language learned in middle age nor so romantic, brave or kind.

The reason it's difficult to learn something new is that it will change you into someone who disagrees with the person you used to be.

There are books which one should not attempt before having passed the age of forty.

Life is too short to learn German

We are struggling with language.
We are engaged in a struggle with language.

"I'd hoped the language might come on its own, the way it comes to babies, but people don't talk to foreigners the way they talk to babies. They don't hypnotize you with bright objects and repeat the same words over and over, handing out little treats when you finally say "potty" or "wawa." It got to the point where I'd see a baby in the bakery or grocery store and instinctively ball up my fists, jealous over how easy he had it. I wanted to lie in a French crib and start from scratch, learning the language from the ground floor up. I wanted to be a baby, but instead, I was an adult who talked like one, a spooky man-child demanding more than his fair share of attention.

Rather than admit defeat, I decided to change my goals. I told myself that I'd never really cared about learning the language. My main priority was to get the house in shape. The verbs would come in due time, but until then I needed a comfortable place to hide. "

If I do not speak in a language that can be understood there is little chance for a dialogue.

"Now we are seeing the disadvantage of not knowing every language," said Conseil "or is it the disadvantage of not having a universal language?"

When the language one identifies with is far away, one does everything possible to keep it alive. Because words bring back everything: the place, the people, the life, the streets, the life, the sky, the flowers, the sounds. When you live without your own language you feel weightless and, at the same time, overloaded. Your breathe another type of air, at a different altitude. You are always aware of the difference.

When you live in a country where your own language is considered foreign, you can feel a continuous sense of estrangement.

Hardest of all, as one becomes older, is to accept that sapient remarks can be drawn from the most unwelcome or seemingly improbable sources, and that the apparently more trustworthy sources can lead one astray.

The more you learn, the harder the lessons get.