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

If language is intimately related to being human, then when we study language we are, to a remarkable degree, studying human nature.

Language is a living thing. It must survive in men's minds and on their tongues if it survives at all.

You and I who read and write books have very little effect upon language. We may think about it, write about it, and read about it, but it goes on without us, or in spite of us.

Next in criminality to him who violates the laws of his country, is he who violates the language.

The only living language is the language in which we think and have our being.

Slang is a poor-man s poetry.

Language, as we know, is full of illogicalities.

Will America be the death of English? I'm glad I asked me that. My well-thought-out mature judgment is that it will.

But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better.