Do you need some inspiration and motivation when it comes to language learning? So here are 50 famous quotes about learning languages.
There are plenty of good reasons to learn a language.
In an age of increasing globalization, a new language can add considerable value to your CV as the job choices in Foreign Languages are growing like never before.
One of the most common reasons for failure in language learning is the lack of true inspiration. If you’re struggling to learn a new language, Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
In my opinion, learning a language is a delightful process. However, sometimes It can be a very frustrating journey and can be a real struggle.
These 50 inspirational and motivating quotes about learning languages will help light up your path to language fluency.
Famous Quotes About Learning Languages that will motivate you

- “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” ― Nelson Mandela
- “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
- “One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” ― Frank Smith
- “One who speaks only one language is one person, but one who speaks two languages is two people.” ― Turkish Proverb
- “You live a new life for every language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.” ― Czech proverb
- “It is astonishing how much enjoyment one can get out of a language that one understands imperfectly.” ― Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve
- “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” ― Ludwig Wittgenstein
- “We should learn languages because language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly.” ― Kató Lomb
- “Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world.” ― Rumi
- “If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. If I’m buying, Dann müssen Sie Deutsch Sprechen.” ― Willy Brandt
- “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.” ― William Butler Yeats
- “With languages, you are at home anywhere.” ― Edward De Waal
- “You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.” ― Geoffrey Willans
- “A different language is a different vision of life.” ― Federico Fellini
- “Language is the archives of history.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” ― Rita Mae Brown
- “Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.” ― Roger Bacon
- “A man who knows two languages is worth two men.” ― French Proverb
- “He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- “A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language.” ― Gaston Bachelard
- “To have another language is to possess a second soul.” ― Charlemagne
- “Any time you think some other language is strange, remember that yours is just as strange, you’re just used to it.” ― Anonymous
- “Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things but learning another way to think about things.” ― Flora Lewis
- “Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye.” ― William Gibson
- “The man who does not know other languages, unless he is a man of genius, necessarily has deficiencies in his ideas.” ― Victor Hugo
- “We invent the world through language. The world occurs through language.” ― Mal Pancoast
- “No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality.” ― Edward Sapir
- “Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.” ― Amy Chua
- “To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.” ― Chinese Proverb
- “Absolutely nothing is so important for a nation’s culture as its language.” ― Wilhelm von Humboldt
- “It is literally the case that learning languages make you smarter. The neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language learning.” ― Michael Gove
- “No man should travel until he has learned the language of the country he visits. Otherwise, he voluntarily makes himself a great baby, so helpless and so ridiculous.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Language reflects the soul of people.” ― Paul Schibler
- “A new language is a new life.” ― Persian proverb
- “The most intimate temper of a people, its deepest soul, is above all in its language.” ― Jules Michelet
- “Learn a language, and you’ll avoid a war.” ― Arab proverb
- “I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities.” ― Elif Safak
- “If you want people to understand you, you speak their language.” ― African Proverb
- “You are as many a person as languages you know.” ― Armenian Proverb
- “A man can be recognized by his language.” ― Jewish proverb
- “Old donkeys do not learn languages.” ― Portuguese Proverb
- “If you can speak three languages, you’re trilingual. If you can speak two languages, you’re bilingual. If you can speak only one language, you’re an American.” ― Anonymous
- “First, the language dies, then the culture.” ― Anonymous
- “Who wants to have an effect on others, must first speak in their language with them.” ― Kurt Tucholsky
- “Study a foreign language if you have an opportunity to do so. You may never be called to a land where that language is spoken, but the study will have given you a better understanding of your own tongue or of another tongue you may be asked to acquire.” ― Gordon B. Hinckley
- “The joy of knowing a foreign language is inexpressible. I find it really difficult to express such joy in my mother tongue.” ― Munia Khan
- “I’m always impressed by people who can speak another language, two people talking what sounds like utter gibberish, yet making complete sense to each other never fails to entertain.” ― Tom Reynolds
- “A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- “Some translators turn an author’s words from gold to stone, others from stone to gold.” ― Terri Guillemets
- “We have strong evidence today that studying a foreign language has a ripple effect, helping to improve student performance in other subjects.” ― Richard Riley
Are you feeling motivated by these inspirational quotes about learning languages? Want more?
Check out 101 Language Learning Quotes to Inspire & Motivate You. Do you know any foreign language sayings or quotes that you like? Share them with us in the comments below!