God never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make the message clear for them.
—The Qur’an, c. 620Quotes
Words pay no debts.
—William Shakespeare, 1601History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.
—Theodor Adorno, c. 1946I live by good soup, and not on fine language.
—Molière, 1672Slang is as old as speech and the congregating together of people in cities. It is the result of crowding and excitement and artificial life.
—John Camden Hotten, 1859The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.
—Winston Churchill, 1943Under all speech that is good for anything, there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as eternity; speech is shallow as time.
—Thomas Carlyle, 1838A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.
—Arthur Miller, 1961Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.
—Albert Camus, 1957I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.
—Xenocrates, c. 350 BCLanguage is the archives of history.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.
—Benjamin Franklin, c. 1732