Words pay no debts.

It is a luxury to be understood.

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.

Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.

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

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

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.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

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

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

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

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

Only 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.