Language is the archives of history.

We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

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

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. 

A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.

Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?

In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.

I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

It is a luxury to be understood.

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.

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

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.