“If you consider this absorbent mind in relation to language, you will understand how necessary it is to put a small child among people who speak well and correctly, and who talk a great deal.”

— Maria Montessori, the 1946 London Lectures, p. 66.

“I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities.”

Elif Safak

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.

—Benjamin Franklin

“While you may think you speak only one language, in fact your mind accommodates multiple codes of communication. Some people speak Spanish, some Mandarin. Some speak poetry, some are fluent in maths. We are built for multilingualism.” — Dr Viorica Marian

“When you grow up in a family of languages, you develop a kind of casual fluency, so that languages, though differently coloured, all seem transparent to experience.” - David Antin

“It is astonishing how much enjoyment one can get out of a language that one understands imperfectly.” – Basil Gildersleeve

“Understanding why and how languages differ tells about the range of what is human, discovering what’s universal about languages can help us understand the core of our humanity.” - Dan Jurafsky

'Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.' – Amy Chua

“Language is not a genetic gift, it is a social gift. Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club – the community of speakers of that language.” - Frank Smith

“If culture was a house, then language is the key to the front door, to all the rooms inside.” - Khaled Hosseini

“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” ‒ Rita Mae Brown

“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things but learning another way to think about things.” – Flora Lewis

“You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.” - Geoffrey Willans