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

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

Slang is as old as speech and the congregating together of people in cities. It is the result of crowding and excitement and artificial life.

When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.

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

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.

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

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

It is a luxury to be understood.

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

Words pay no debts.

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.