All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar's teeth.

All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar's teeth.

You taught me language, and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
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You taught me language, and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!

The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them

The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them

For every man there is something in the vocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His enemies read more

For every man there is something in the vocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His enemies have only to find it.

No language is rude that can boast polite writers.

No language is rude that can boast polite writers.

Our native language is like a second skin, so much a part of us we resist the idea that it read more

Our native language is like a second skin, so much a part of us we resist the idea that it is constantly changing, constantly being renewed.

If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found the time to conquer the world.

If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found the time to conquer the world.

I am the King of Rome, and above grammar.
[Lat., Ego sum rex Romanus, et supra grammaticam.]

I am the King of Rome, and above grammar.
[Lat., Ego sum rex Romanus, et supra grammaticam.]

And who in time knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores
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And who in time knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores
This gain of our best glory shall be sent,
T' enrich unknowing nations with our stores?
What worlds in th' yet unformed Occident
May come refin'd with th' accents that are ours?