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

Language is the armory of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests. 

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a glut of books! Who can read them? As already, we shall have a vast chaos and confusion of books; we are oppressed with them, our eyes ache with reading, our fingers with turning.

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.