Under all speech that is good for anything, there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as eternity; speech is shallow as time.

Methinks the human method of expression by sound of tongue is very elementary and ought to be substituted for some ingenious invention which should be able to give vent to at least six coherent sentences at once.

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.

Words pay no debts.

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Language is the armory of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests. 

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

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.

History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

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

Language is the archives of history.

Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?