42 Awesome Inspirational Quotes for Language Learners (2024)

Some days learning a language can be a real struggle, but these beautiful inspirational quotes will keep you motivated.

Learning a foreign language is an emotional roller coaster mixed with amazing highs, frustrating plateaus, and the feeling like you’re not making any progress at all. It’s so easy to become discouraged and want to throw in the towel which is why I’ve collated a list of inspiring language quotes from history’s great linguistics and authors as well as beautiful proverbs that will give you a much-needed boost of morale.

Here are 42 of the best inspirational quotes that will keep us language learners motivated.

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1. Language comes first. It’s not that language grows out of consciousness, if you haven’t got language, you can’t be conscious. – Alan Moore

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

3. Learn a language, and you’ll avoid a war. – Arab Proverb

4.It is astonishing how much enjoyment one can get out of a language that one understands imperfectly. — Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve

5. Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about. – Benjamin Lee Whorf

6. To have another language is to possess a second soul. ‒ Charlemagne

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For more inspiration, don’t miss my guide to cool gifts for language learners and the best travel accessories and travel gadgets here.

7. Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. – Chinese Proverb

8. To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world. – Chinese Proverb

9. You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once. ‒ Czech Proverb

10. Learn a new language and get a new soul. – Czech Proverb

11.With languages, you are at home anywhere. – Edward De Waal

12. I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities. – Elif Safak

13. A different language is a different vision of life. – Federico Fellini

14.Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things. ‒ Flora Lewis

15.Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club – the community of speakers of that language. ‒ Frank Smith

16.One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way. ‒ Frank Smith

17. 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

18.A man who knows two languages is worth two men. ‒ French Proverb

19.A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language. ‒ Gaston Bachelard

20.You can never understand one language until you understand at least two. ‒ Geoffrey Willans

21. A foreign language is like a frail, delicate muscle. If you do not use it, it weakens. – Jhumpa Lahiri

22. He who knows no foreign languages know nothing of his own. ‒ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

23.The most intimate temper of a people, its deepest soul, is above all in its language. – Jules Michelet

24. Change your language and you change your thoughts. ‒ Karl Albrecht

25. We should learn languages because language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly. – Kató Lomb

26.If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world. ‒ Ludwig Wittgenstein

27.The limits of my language are the limits of my world. ‒ Ludwig Wittgenstein

28.The joy of knowing a foreign language is inexpressible. I find it really difficult to express such joy in my mother tongue. ― Munia Khan

29. If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart. ‒ Nelson Mandela

30.Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow. ‒ Oliver Wendell Holmes

31.A new language is a new life. – Persian Proverb

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

33.Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom. ‒ Roger Bacon

34.The conquest of learning is achieved through the knowledge of languages. – Roger Bacon

36.I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations. – Samuel Johnson

37. Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can; there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did. ‒ Sarah Caldwell

38.One who speaks only one language is one person, but one who speaks two languages is two people.‒ Turkish proverb

39.The man who does not know other languages, unless he is a man of genius, necessarily has deficiencies in his ideas. – Victor Hugo

40.Language is wine upon the lips. – Virginia Woolf

41.Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye. – William Gibson

42.As a hawk flieth not high with one wing, even so a man reacheth not to excellence with one tongue. – Roger Ascham

If you enjoyed these words, then let wordsmiths Stephen King, Mark Twain and the Dalai Lama transport you around the world with theseInspirational Travel Quotes.Want more? Add these beautiful foreign words to your repertoire.

For more inspiration, don’t miss my guide to cool gifts for language learners and the best travel accessories and travel gadgets here.

Want to know more about learning languages? Start here!

• How to Learn Languages Like Crazy, Even If You Have a Crazy Life [3-Step Method]
• 10 Proven Memory Hacks: How to Remember New Vocabulary Faster
• 23 Cool Gifts Language Learners Will Actually Use and Love
• What Type of Language Learner Are You? Your 4-Step Personalised Learning Plan
• 13 Ways to Seamlessly Integrate Language Learning into Your Daily Life
• 7 Reasons Why You Should Go on a Language Holiday
• Essential Travel Phrases: How to be Travel Fluent in 10 Simple Steps
• How to Learn Your First Foreign Language in 8 Simple Steps: A Beginner’s Guide
• Language learning tips: 11 Polyglots Reveal The Secrets of Their Success
• 15 Top Language Learning Resources You Should Use
• 11 Life-Changing Reasons Why You Should Learn a Language
• 42 beautiful Inspirational Quotes for Language Learners
• Top 10 Best Ways to Learn a Language Better and Faster
• How to Learn Italian Before Your Trip
• Free Travel Phrase Guides
• How a ‘Potato’ improved my French Pronunciation
• How Many Languages are there in the World?
• 78 FREE Dictionaries to Learn a Language Fast [Free eBook Download]
• 22 KEY Travel Phrases That Will Transform Your Travels [Free Guide]

Over to you!

Which one of these language quotes did you love the most? Do you know any others?
Let me know using thecomments section below or join me on social media to start a conversation.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post.

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Michele

Michele creates language learning guides and courses for travel. What separates her from other instructors is her ability to explain complex grammar in a no-nonsense, straightforward manner using her unique 80/20 method. Get her free guide Planning a trip? Learn the local language with her 80/20 method for less than the cost of eating at a tourist trap restaurant Start learning today!