Source: Cours de linguistique générale (1916), p. 111-112
Source: Course in General Linguistics
Context: Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass. Philosophers and linguists have always agreed in recognizing that without the help of signs we would be unable to make a clear-cut, consistent distinction between two ideas. Without language, thought is a vague, uncharted nebula. here are no pre-existing ideas, and nothing is distinct before the appearance of language.
“…that shapeless, formless, fibreless mass of platitudes which in official cant is called "unsectarian religion."”
Quarterly Review, 113, 1863, p. 266
1860s
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury 112
British politician 1830–1903Related quotes
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Quoted without citation by Nathaniel J. Ehrlich, Psychology and contemporary affairs, p. 78 (1972)
Attributed
Source: "Abuses of socialism are intolerable," article in Central Committee magazine Kulloja (March 1, 1993)
“The tolerant liberal suddenly becomes very intolerant when their official religion is challenged.”
Online promotional material (6 June 2006).
2006