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

The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.

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.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

Writing cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.

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. 

The chief merit of language is clearness, and we know that nothing detracts so much from this as do unfamiliar terms.

It is a luxury to be understood.

Methinks the human method of expression by sound of tongue is very elementary and ought to be substituted for some ingenious invention which should be able to give vent to at least six coherent sentences at once.

Man is the one name belonging to every nation upon earth: there is one soul and many tongues, one spirit and various sounds; every country has its own speech, but the subjects of speech are common to all.

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

Words pay no debts.

History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.