Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work.

The only authors whom I acknowledge as American are the journalists. They indeed are not great writers, but they speak the language of their countrymen, and make themselves heard by them. 

Anyone who doesn’t know foreign languages knows nothing of his own.

Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.

The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height.

Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.

Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.

How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

I live by good soup, and not on fine language.

My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin.