Edward Sapir

A common creation demands a common sacrifice, and perhaps not the least potent argument in favour of a constructed international language is the fact that it is equally foreign, or apparently so, to the traditions of all nationalities. ”

French and German illustrate the misleading character of apparent grammatical simplicity just as well. ”

We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation. ”

In a sense, every form of expression is imposed upon one by social factors, one's own language above all. ”

No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. ”

Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. ”

It is no secret that the fruits of language study are in no sort of relation to the labour spent on teaching and learning them. ”

A common allegiance to form of expression that is identified with no single national unit is likely to prove one of the most potent symbols of the freedom of the human spirit that the world has yet known. ”

Cultural anthropology is more and more rapidly getting to realize itself as a strictly historical science. ”

Both French and Latin are involved with nationalistic and religious implications which could not be entirely shaken off, and so, while they seemed for a long time to have solved the international language problem up to a certain point, they did not really do so in spirit. ”