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.

When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.

Newspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever lays one down without a feeling of disappointment.

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

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

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.

We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?

Language is the house of being. In its home human beings dwell. Those who think and those who create with words are the guardians of this home.

It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.

Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.

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