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Top 15 John H. McWhorter Quotes (2025 Update)

John H. McWhorter Quote: “Prescriptive grammar has spread linguistic insecurity like a plague among English speakers for centuries, numbs us to the aesthetic richness of non-standard speech, and distracts us from attending to genuine issues of linguistic style in writing.”

1. “Prescriptive grammar has spread linguistic insecurity like a plague among English speakers for centuries, numbs us to the aesthetic richness of non-standard speech, and distracts us from attending to genuine issues of linguistic style in writing.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “Loving your language means a command of its vocabulary beyond the level of the everyday.”

2. “Loving your language means a command of its vocabulary beyond the level of the everyday.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “No longer can we measure compassion by how much we spend on poverty but how many people we help to lift out of poverty.”

3. “No longer can we measure compassion by how much we spend on poverty but how many people we help to lift out of poverty.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “Every third person in the world is a drama queen. And crying ‘victim,’ especially when you’re not really a victim in any real way, feels good. It feels good to cry victim if you’re not one.”

4. “Every third person in the world is a drama queen. And crying ‘victim,’ especially when you’re not really a victim in any real way, feels good. It feels good to cry victim if you’re not one.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “Ebonics – or black English, as I prefer to call it – is one of a great many dialects of English. And so English comes in a great many varieties, and black English is one of them.”

5. “Ebonics – or black English, as I prefer to call it – is one of a great many dialects of English. And so English comes in a great many varieties, and black English is one of them.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “A person you excuse from any genuine challenge is a person you do not truly respect.”

6. “A person you excuse from any genuine challenge is a person you do not truly respect.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “Texting is fingered speech. Now we can write the way we talk.”

7. “Texting is fingered speech. Now we can write the way we talk.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “People think of black English as ungrammatical, but it bears the same relationship to standard English as contemporary Hebrew does to ancient Hebrew.”

8. “People think of black English as ungrammatical, but it bears the same relationship to standard English as contemporary Hebrew does to ancient Hebrew.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “We must neither behave as children by resisting honesty, nor allow ourselves to be treated as children by having honesty withheld.”

9. “We must neither behave as children by resisting honesty, nor allow ourselves to be treated as children by having honesty withheld.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “People have been warning us that language was going to the dogs ever since Latin started turning into French. Yet the dogs in question never seem to emerge yelping on the horizon.”

10. “People have been warning us that language was going to the dogs ever since Latin started turning into French. Yet the dogs in question never seem to emerge yelping on the horizon.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “Texting is very loose in its structure. No one thinks about capital letters or punctuation when one texts, but then again, do you think about those things when you talk?”

11. “Texting is very loose in its structure. No one thinks about capital letters or punctuation when one texts, but then again, do you think about those things when you talk?”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “Racism is not dead. Definitely, there are these biases.”

12. “Racism is not dead. Definitely, there are these biases.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “English, however, is kinky. It has a predilection for dressing up like Welsh on lonely nights.”

13. “English, however, is kinky. It has a predilection for dressing up like Welsh on lonely nights.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “The only way that residual racist feelings could affect legislation, in my opinion, is through a lack of priorities, from not doing things.”

14. “The only way that residual racist feelings could affect legislation, in my opinion, is through a lack of priorities, from not doing things.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “Polish has developed unimpeded; someone put their foot out and tripped English. The human grammar is a fecund weed, like grass. Languages like English, Persian, and Mandarin Chinese are mowed lawns, indicative of an interruption in natural proliferation.”

15. “Polish has developed unimpeded; someone put their foot out and tripped English. The human grammar is a fecund weed, like grass. Languages like English, Persian, and Mandarin Chinese are mowed lawns, indicative of an interruption in natural proliferation.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “In an ideal world, the time English speakers devote to steeling themselves against, and complaining about, things like Billy and me, singular they, and impact as a verb would be better spent attending to genuine matters of graceful oral and written expression.”

16. “In an ideal world, the time English speakers devote to steeling themselves against, and complaining about, things like Billy and me, singular they, and impact as a verb would be better spent attending to genuine matters of graceful oral and written expression.”

— John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Quote: “The war on drugs is what makes thugs.”

17. “The war on drugs is what makes thugs.”

— John H. McWhorter

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