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About this quote

What does it mean?
Good language comes from thinking about how the mind works and reflects on itself.
In plain terms
Language improves when we think about thinking.
What can you take from it?
Reflect on your thinking process.

Where it applies

  • writing
  • learning
  • problem solving

Putting it to work

  • practice metacognition
  • analyze ideas
  • write clearly

Questions to consider

  • How does thinking change language?
  • Do you think about your thoughts?

Another view

Some language is instinctive and not reflective.

More from Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  1. Our myriad-minded Shakespeare.

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  2. Now Art, used collectively for painting, sculpture, architecture and music, is the mediatress between, and reconciler of, nature and man. It is, therefore, the…

    Permalink to quote #120
  3. While [Shakespeare] darts himself forth, and passes into all the forms of human character and passion, the one Proteus of the fire and the flood; [Milton] attr…

    Permalink to quote #117

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