Who said “Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The…”?

Verified

George Steiner. A published source records them saying or writing it.

Source"The Retreat from the Word," Kenyon Review (Spring 1961).

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“Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence.”
— George Steiner
Verified"The Retreat from the Word," Kenyon Review (Spring 1961). · evidenceLanguage
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Cite this quote

For academic work, cite the original where you can: "The Retreat from the Word," Kenyon Review (Spring 1961)..

APA

Steiner, G. (n.d.). Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence. [Quotation]. Famous Quotations Network. Retrieved October 24, 2026, from https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/25359-language-can-only-deal-meaningfully-with-a-special/

MLA

Steiner, George. “Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence.” Famous Quotations Network, https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/25359-language-can-only-deal-meaningfully-with-a-special/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Steiner, George. “Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence.” Famous Quotations Network. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/25359-language-can-only-deal-meaningfully-with-a-special/.

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More quotes by George Steiner

“The immense majority of human biographies are a gray transit between domestic spasm and oblivion.”
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“To shoot a man because one disagrees with his interpretation of Darwin or Hegel is a sinister tribute to the supremacy of ideas in human affairs -- but a tribute nevertheless.”
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“Pornographers subvert this last, vital privacy; they do our imagining for us. They take away the words that were of the night and shout them over the roof-tops, making them hollow.”
Verified"Night Words," Encounter (October 1965). · evidenceDetails & citePornography
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All 13 George Steiner quotes →