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The language we share is at the core of our identity as citizens, and our ticket to full participation in American political life. We can speak any language we want at the dinner table, but English is the language of public discourse, or the marketplace and of the voting booth.

S. I. Hayakawa

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S. I. Hayakawa
Age: 85 †
Born: 1906
Born: July 18
Died: 1992
Died: February 27
Anthropologist
Former United States Senator
Linguist
Politician
Psychologist
University Teacher
Vancouver
British Columbia
S. I. Hayakawa
Full
Table
Booth
Public
Tables
American
Core
Ticket
Language
Dinner
Marketplace
Speak
English
Tickets
Political
Identity
Participation
Life
Citizens
Discourse
Share
Voting

More quotes by S. I. Hayakawa

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In the age of television, image becomes more important than substance.
S. I. Hayakawa
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Patriotic societies seem to think that the way to educate school children in a democracy is to stage bigger and better flag-saluting.
S. I. Hayakawa
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We live in a highly competitive society, each of us trying to outdo the other in wealth, in popularity or social prestige, in dress, in scholastic grades or golf scores. One is often tempted to say that conflict, rather than cooperation, is the great governing principle of human life.
S. I. Hayakawa
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Republicans are people who, if you were drowning 50 feet from shore, would throw you a 25-foot rope and tell you to swim the other 25 feet because it would be good for your character. Democrats would throw you a hundred-foot rope and then walk away looking for other good deeds to do.
S. I. Hayakawa
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Those terrifying verbal jungles called laws are simply such directives, accumulated, codified, and systematized through the centuries.
S. I. Hayakawa
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The last thing a scientist would do is cling to a map because he inherited it from his grandfather, or because it was used by George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.
S. I. Hayakawa
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Bilingualism for the individual is fine, but not for a country.
S. I. Hayakawa
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America is an open society, more open than any other in the world. People of every race, of every color, of every culture are welcomed here to create a new life for themselves and their families. And what do these people who enter into the American mainstream have in common? English, our shared common language.
S. I. Hayakawa
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Learning to write is learning to think. You don't know anything clearly unless you can state it in writing.
S. I. Hayakawa
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Good teachers never say anything. What they do is create the conditions under which learning takes place.
S. I. Hayakawa
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I'm going to speak my mind because I have nothing to lose.
S. I. Hayakawa
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English, our common language, binds our diverse people.
S. I. Hayakawa
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There is only one thing age can give you, and that is wisdom.
S. I. Hayakawa
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We should keep [the Panama Canal]. After all, we stole it fair and square.
S. I. Hayakawa
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Agreement is brought about by changing people's minds - other people's.
S. I. Hayakawa
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You guys are both saying the same thing. The only reason you're arguing is because you're using different words.
S. I. Hayakawa
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English is the key to full participation in the opportunities of American life.
S. I. Hayakawa