“We were language's magpies by nature, stealing whatever sounded bright and shiny.”

“The announcers sounded giddily excited. Their faces flushed, their eyes bright. Natural disasters did that to people, made them feel significant, reassured them that their actions mattered.”

Michael Swanwick book Stations of the Tide

“The sound was pure and sweet as water, bright as lemons.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

“When you steal a people's language, you leave their soul bewildered.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

“A pleasant natural environment is a good— a luxury good, philosophical good, a moral goody-good, a good time for all. Whatever, we want it. If we want something, we should pay for it, with our labor or our cash. We shouldn't beg it, steal it, sit around wishing for it, or euchre the government into taking it by force.”

P. J. O'Rourke (1947) American journalist

“They call us thieves and bandits. They say we steal. But it was not we who stole millions of Black people from the continent of Africa. We were robbed of our language, of our Gods, of our culture, of our human dignity, of our labor, and of our lives. They call us thieves, yet it is not.”

Assata Shakur (1947) American activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army

“He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

“We all know that light travels faster than sound. That's why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“There were no sounds of men, here; only the whisperings of the world of nature, which men often called silence.”

Sean Russell (1952) author

“Interviewer Barb H: Your sound is quite refreshing, did it come naturally?
AP: As natural as the day you were born, my love.”

Amanda Palmer (1976) American punk-cabaret musician