“We can say that speaking French "runs in families," but I don't know anyone who would claim that speaking French is genetic.”
This is Your Brain on Music (2006)
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Daniel Levitin 76
American psychologist 1957Related quotes
“If Napoleon had nuclear subs, we’d all be speaking French. So, the history thing can be oversold.”
2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)
“I speak in Latin to God, Italian to Women, French to Men, and German to my Horse.”
Charles V may have said something in this general format, but not with this specific wording. Variants have been quoted for centuries, and the earliest known citation, itself a secondary source dating from 40 years after his death, gives two versions that both differ from the modern one. Girolamo Fabrizi d'Acquapendente's 1601 De Locutione gives:
Unde solebat, ut audio, Carolus V Imperator dicere, Germanorum linguam esse militarem: Hispanorum amatoriam: Italorum oratoriam: Gallorum nobilem ("When Emperor Charles V used to say, as I hear, that the language of the Germans was military; that of the Spaniards pertained to love; that of the Italians to prayer; that of the French was noble").
Alius vero, qui Germanus erat, retulit, eundem Carolum Quintum dicere aliquando solitum esse; Si loqui cum Deo oporteret, se Hispanice locuturum, quod lingua Hispanorum gravitatem maiestatemque prae se ferat; si cum amicis, Italice, quod Italorum dialectus familiaris sit; si cui blandiendum esset, Gallice, quod illorum lingua nihil blandius; si cui minandum aut asperius loquendum, Germanice, quod tota eorum lingua minax, aspera sit ac vehemens (Indeed another, who was German, related that the same Charles V sometimes used to say: if it was necessary to talk with God, that he would talk in Spanish, which language suggests itself for the graveness and majesty of the Spaniards; if with friends, in Italian, for the dialect of the Italians was one of familiarity; if to caress someone, in French, for no language is tenderer than theirs; if to threaten someone or to speak harshly to them, in German, for their entire language is threatening, rough and vehement").
“French: why does this language even exist? Everyone there speaks english anyway.”
Source: Princess in Waiting
Appeal of June 18, Speech of June 18
Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
When asked about learning French during the 2018 Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2018/11/28/doug-ford-discovers-the-franco-ontarians-he-never-knew.html
2018
Contrasting Barack Obama with French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Barack Obama Has Little In Common With Europe http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27669