Language is the most imperfect and expensive means yet discovered for communicating thought.

James’s remark reflects a central concern of late‑19th‑century psychology and philosophy: how private, continuous experience (“thought”) can be rendered into public symbols. Calling language “imperfect” points to its tendency to simplify, generalize, and distort the fine-grained flow of consciousness; words carve experience into categories that rarely match what is actually felt or meant. Calling it “expensive” underscores the effort and loss involved in translation—time, misunderstanding, and the inevitable gap between intention and expression. The line also hints at James’s pragmatism: language is a tool that works well enough for practical coordination, but it is not a transparent window onto inner life.