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

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

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Man is the one name belonging to every nation upon earth: there is one soul and many tongues, one spirit and various sounds; every country has its own speech, but the subjects of speech are common to all.

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

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