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

Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.

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

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

It is a luxury to be understood.

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

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

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.

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 has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

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

Words pay no debts.

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