The only authors whom I acknowledge as American are the journalists. They indeed are not great writers, but they speak the language of their countrymen, and make themselves heard by them. 

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.

How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Information 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.

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

Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.

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

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

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

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

Writing cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.