"As you are reading these words, you are taking part in one of the wonders of the natural world." Chap. 1, p. 15

"It is a curious fact about the intellectual history of the past few centuries that physical and mental development have been approached in quite different ways." Chap. 1, p. 22

"When deaf infants are raised by signing parents, they learn sign language in the same way that hearing infants learn spoken language." Chap. 2, p. 37

"Injuries in adulthood are not the only ways that the circuitry underlying language can be compromised." Chap. 2, p. 48

"As we shall see in this chapter, there is no scientific evidence that language dramatically shapes their speakers' ways of thinking." Chap. 3, p. 58

"People can be forgiven for overrating language." Chap. 3, p. 67

"Phrase structure, clearly, is the kind if stuff language is made of." Chap. 4, p. 103

"Who could not be dazzled by the creative power of the...