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.

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

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.

Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.

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

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.

Language is the house of being. In its home human beings dwell. Those who think and those who create with words are the guardians of this home.

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

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

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

The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.

Words pay no debts.