Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.
Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion. I've seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges.
A man reacheth not to excellence with one language.
As a hawk flieth not high with one wing, even so a man reacheth not to excellence with one tongue.
But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.
The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.
Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.
It is with words as with sunbeams-the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.
Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.