Linguistics will have to recognise laws operating universally in language, and in a strictly rational manner, separating general phenomena from those restricted to one branch of languages or another.

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The connection between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary.

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Nearly all institutions, it might be said, are based on signs, but these signs do not directly evoke things.

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A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas.

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A language presupposes that all the individual users possess the organs.

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Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.

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The very special place that a language occupies among institutions is undeniable, but there is much more to be said-, a comparison would tend rather to bring out the differences.

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The critical principle demanded an examination, for instance, of the contribution of different periods, thus to some extent embarking on historical linguistics.

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Everyone, left to his own devices, forms an idea about what goes on in language which is very far from the truth.

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I’m almost never serious, and I’m always too serious. Too deep, too shallow. Too sensitive, too cold hearted. I’m like a collection of paradoxes.

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