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

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.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

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

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

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

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

Words pay no debts.

I live by good soup, and not on fine language.

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

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

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

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.