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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.

Anyone who doesn’t know foreign languages knows nothing of his own.

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