Archive

Quotes

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

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

The newspaper is the natural enemy of the book, as the whore is of the decent woman.

—Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, 1858

Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.

—Benjamin Franklin, c. 1732

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

—Marcel Marceau, 1958

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

—George Orwell, 1944

Language is the archives of history.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844

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

—Plato, c. 375 BC

Under 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, 1838

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.

—E.M. Forster, 1910

Words pay no debts.

—William Shakespeare, 1601

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

—Charles Lamb, 1833

It is impossible to translate the poets. Can you translate music?

—Voltaire, c. 1732

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

—Karl Kraus, c. 1910