“The English language lacks the ability to express thoughts that surpass the order of concrete things. It’s because the German language has this ability that Germany is the country of thinkers.”

—  Adolf Hitler

Source: 7 March 1942, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 30, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The English language lacks the ability to express thoughts that surpass the order of concrete things. It’s because the …" by Adolf Hitler?
Adolf Hitler photo
Adolf Hitler 265
Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi … 1889–1945

Related quotes

Ilchi Lee photo

“Our exclusive dependence on rational thought and language has obscured our natural ability to sense the flow of energy.”

Ilchi Lee (1950) South Korean businessman

Source: Brain Wave Vibration: Getting Back Into the Rhythm of a Happy, Healthy Life

Salman Rushdie photo

“French, German, English and Spanish are four admirable languages and I manage to express myself in all of them with more or less skill.”

Albert Caraco (1919–1971) French-Uruguayan philosopher

Source: Journal of 1969, p. 45

Arthur Kekewich photo

“It is impossible for us English lawyers, dealing with the English language, to express our views except in the technical language of our law.”

Arthur Kekewich (1832–1907) British judge

Lauri v. Renad (1892), L. R. 3 C. D. [1892], p. 413.

Johann Georg Hamann photo

“Not only the entire ability to think rests on language… but language is also the crux of the misunderstanding of reason with itself.”

Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788) German philosopher

Sämtliche Werken, ed. Josef Nadler (1949-1957), vol. III, p. 286.

Rudolf Pannwitz photo

“Translations [into the German language], even the best ones, proceed from a mistaken premise. They want to turn Hindi, Greek, English into German instead of turning German into Hindi, Greek, English. … The basic error of the translator is that he preserves the state in which his own language happens to be instead of allowing his language to be powerfully affected by the foreign tongue.”

Rudolf Pannwitz (1881–1969) German writer and philosopher

Unsere übertragungen, auch die besten, gehen von einem falschen grundsatz aus, sie wollen das indische, griechische, englische verdeutschen, anstatt das deutsche zu verindischen, vergriechischen, verenglischen. ... Der grundsätzliche irrtum des übertragenden ist, daß er den zufälligen stand der eigenen sprache festhält, anstatt sie durch die fremde gewaltig bewegen zu lassen.
Die Krisis der europäischen Kultur (1917), as translated in Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings: Volume 1, 1913-1926 (1996), pp. 261-262

Alexander Lukashenko photo

“People who speak Belarusian can not do anything except talk on it, because it is impossible to express anything great in Belarusian. The Belarusian language is a poor language. There are only two great languages in the world. Russian and English.”

Alexander Lukashenko (1954) President of Belarus since 20 July 1994

As quoted in Топ-10 самых скандальных и оскорбительных высказываний Лукашенко http://europeanbelarus.org/be/news/2012/2/24/3941/ // Civil campaign European Belarus, europeanbelarus.org (in Russian)

Frances Kellor photo

“Americanization today is little more than an impulse, and its context, as popularly conceived, is both narrow and superficial. As French has been the language of diplomacy in the past, so English is to be the language of the reconstruction of the world. English is the language of 90,000,000 people living in America. The English language is a highway of loyalty; it is a medium of exchange; it is the open door to opportunity; it is a means of common defense. It is an implement of Americanization, but it is not necessarily Americanization. The American who thinks that America is united and safe when all men speak one language has only to look at Austria and to study the Jugo-Slav and Czecho-Slovak nationalistic movements. The imposition of a language is not the creation of nationalism. A common language is essential to a common understanding, and by all means let America open such a line of communication. The traffic that goes over this line is, however, the vital thing, and what that shall be and how it is to be prepared are matters to which but little thought has been given. Even those who urge the abolition of all other languages are indefinite about the restriction. Shall a man after he has learned English be allowed to get news in a foreign language paper and to worship in his native tongue; and if not, what becomes of the liberty which he is urged to learn English in order to appreciate? Are foreign languages to be encouraged as an expression of culture and to be denied as a means of economic and political expression? The English language campaigns in America have failed because they have not secured the support of the foreign-born. Men must have reasons for learning new languages, and America has never presented the case conclusively or satisfactorily. Furthermore, wherever the case has been presented, it has not been done with the proper facilities and under favorable conditions. The working day must not be so long that men cannot study.”

Frances Kellor (1873–1952) American sociologist

What is Americanization? (1919)

Joan Didion photo

Related topics