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

A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.

I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.

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

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

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.

I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.

Unexemplary words and unfounded doctrines are avoided by the noble person. Why utter them?

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.

Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.

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

In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.

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