[...] there is such a thing as a basic plan, a certain cut, to each language. This type or plan or 'structural 'genius' of the language is something much more fundamental [...] than any single feature of it that we can mention [...]
- Sapir (1921), Pag. 120

[...] all languages differ from one another but that certain ones differ far more than others. This is tantamount to saying that it is possible to group them into morphological types.
- Sapir (1921), Pag. 121

[...] it is impossible to set up a limited number of types that would do full justice to the peculiarities of the thousands of languages and dialects spoken on the surface of the earth.
- Sapir (1921), Pag. 121

[...] the historical study of language has proven to us [...] that a language changes not only gradually but consistently, that it moves unconsciously from one type towards another, and that analogous trends are observable in remote quarters of the world.
- Sapir (1921), Pag. 121

In assuming the existence of comparable types [...] we are merely affirming that back of the face of history are powerful drifts that move language, like other social products, to balanced patterns, in other words, to types.
- Sapir (1921), Pag. 122

[...] certain linguistic types are more stable and frequently represented than others that are just as possible from a theoretical standpoint.
- Sapir (1921), Pag. 140