Words pay no debts.
—William Shakespeare, 1601Quotes
It is a luxury to be understood.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1831I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.
—Albert Camus, 1957Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.
—Benjamin Franklin, c. 1732Unexemplary words and unfounded doctrines are avoided by the noble person. Why utter them?
—Dong Zhongshu, c. 120 BCI am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.
—Samuel Johnson, 1773Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked, and which doubtless don’t even arise.
—Jean Baudrillard, c. 1987No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
—Bertrand Russell, 1961I live by good soup, and not on fine language.
—Molière, 1672Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCWhen action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1969The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.
—Plato, c. 375 BCOnly 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