"Languages seemed to float about like islands on the ocean of human speech; they did not shoot together to form themselves into larger continents . . . and if it had not been for a happy accident, which like an electric spark, caused the floating elements to crystallise into regular forms, it is more doubtful whether the long list of languages and dialects could have sustained the interest of the student of languages. This electric spark was the discovery of Sanskrit."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from GermanyPhilologistsHistorians from GermanyNon-fiction authors from GermanyTranslators from Germany
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
(1866: 153–4) quoted in Bryant, E. F., & Patton, L. L. (2005). The Indo-Aryan controversy : evidence and inference in Indian history. Routledge. 181-2
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_M%C3%BCller
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Max Müller
80 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Max Müller →
Related Quotes
"If I live for one purpose it is for this, that I will preach the union of Eastern and Western philosophy, the reconci…"
"Prof. Max Müller shows that no bribes or threats of Akbar could extort the original text of the Vedas from the Brâhma…"
"Would you say that any one sacred book is superior to all others in the world? ... I say the New Testament, after tha…"
"If history is to teach us anything, it must teach us that there is a continuity which binds together the present and …"
"These two sciences. the Science of Language and the Science of Man, cannot. at least for the present, be kept too muc…"
"We think we can see how it is that Professor Muller confesses that "now and then . . . one imagines one sees certain …"
"The missionaries have done far more than they themselves seem to be aware of, nay, much of the work which is theirs t…"
"It is useless to expect scientists to find in these works anything of interest except that which is in direct relatio…"
"Thus we may infer that the only characteristic difference between modern Christianity and the old heathen faiths is t…"
"One might think this position would have endeared Max Muller to missionaries, but in fact it did not. Rather, they fo…"