The Language of Thieves Quotes

“The theory that languages are tools used for particular purposes, sometimes for many different purposes, means that extinct languages belong neither in a museum of art nor in a museum of natural history. Tools are meant to be surpassed by better tools. Once they are, they should be preserved in a museum of technology, of human ingenuity, of the cultural past.”
― Martin Puchner, The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate

“What will endure, I hope, is the idea of Rotwelsch, the idea that marginalized groups develop special languages as tools for survival. We often think of such groups in terms of ethnic identity, but the identity of Rotwelsch speakers was defined by being outside the order of settled society, period. From this position as complete outsiders, they forged an identity by borrowing from the languages around them, with astonishing resilience and inventiveness. Having been cast out from society, they created an idiom that expressed their hard-earned wisdom, their willingness to live differently, and their sheer will to survive.”
― Martin Puchner, The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate

“Bad logic was an early warning sign for prejudice.”
― Martin Puchner, The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate