In my latest Epoch Times column I deplore the tidal wave of linguistic sewage engulfing us from social media to the pages of daily papers as evidence of mental and moral decay.
“All bad language necessarily weakens itself by use.”
G.K. Chesterton in The Bookman December 1931 quoted in “More About Language” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #2 (November/December 2023)
“WHEN WE START DOWN the path of reading books that are true, we run the risk of no longer being able to understand an illiterate culture. Here are three examples and a farce. Nancy Pelosi, speaking to the press about Barack Obama after his election victory said, ‘Obama has the Midas touch!’ The crowd cheered and applauded. In Canada – that patch of snowbound woods directly north of New England – Peter MacKay, a Conservative, explained why they had just lost the election to Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. He blamed social conservatives and pro-lifers who were ‘a stinking albatross’ around the neck of the Conservative Party. The press praised his acumen. A third example: I heard a radio advertisement about a head-hunting business that specializes in finding the right employees for other businesses. They claim that they are able to find the right person just like ‘Finding the needle in the hay stack!’”
David Beresford in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 # 4 (March-April 2023)
“Most fundamental falsehoods are errors in language as well as in philosophy. Most statements that are unreasonable are really ungrammatical.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News October 16, 1909 quoted in “More About Language” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #2 (November/December 2023)
“The worst of using strong language is that it produces weak language.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News June 28, 1926 quoted in “More About Language” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #2 (November/December 2023)
James “Madison was the Father of the Constitution, Architect of the Bill of Rights, and the only Secretary of State never to have left the country. The oldest of 12 children, he could read and write in seven languages. He attended the College of New Jersey (which became Princeton) instead of William and Mary – where Jefferson went and got all those Scottish Enlightenment Ideas.”
Dale Ahlquist in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #3 (Jan.-Feb. 2024)
“The modern laxity of language has had a great deal to do with the ultimate laxity of conduct.”
G.K. Chesterton in G.K.’s Weekly July 4, 1931 quoted in “More About Language” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #2 (November/December 2023)
“In 100 years, we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching remedial English in college.”
Joe Sobran quoted “In the last issue of Gilbert” by David Deavel, according to Pamela Patnode “The Art of Language” in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #1 (Sept.-Oct. 2023); she added “The observation rings true today, and it has scriptural significance.”