Benjamin Lee Whorf

The real world is to a large extent built up on the language habits of the group.

No individual is free to describe nature with absolute impartiality but is constrained to certain modes of interpretation.

The linguistic relativity principle... suggests that the views of the world we hold are largely determined by the structure of our language.

Words have a stubborn twist which prevents them from becoming mere arbitrary symbols.

The background linguistic system... of any language is so stratified... that it is difficult to see the whole picture.

In Hopi, the word for 'wave' includes the notion of motion and recurrence.

Language is the medium through which we see the world.

Our thinking is shaped by the categories of our grammar.

The universe is as we carve it up with our words.

Different languages encode different worldviews.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis reminds us that language is not neutral.

Time in English is a linear track; in Hopi, it is a cycle of events.

Linguistics reveals the hidden architecture of the mind.

Every language is a conspiracy against understanding the world differently.

The fire insurance maps of American cities show how language influences perception of risk.

We are prisoners of our own linguistic patterns.

Grammar is destiny for thought.

Hopi lacks tenses, yet captures time profoundly.

Language does not reflect reality; it constructs it.

The relativity of language is the relativity of culture.