Battered women is a phrase that uncovered major, long-hidden violence. It helps us to face the fact that, statistically speaking, the most dangerous place for a woman is in her own home, not in the streets.

It begins to look, more and more disturbingly, as if the gift of language is the single human trait that marks us all genetically, setting us apart from all the rest of life.

Where shall we look for standard English, but to the words of a standard man?

Ours is a precarious language, as every writer knows, in which the merest shadow line often separates affirmation from negation, sense from nonsense, and one sex from the other.

English orthography satisfies all the requirements of the canons of reputability under the law of conspicuous waste. It is archaic, cumbrous, and ineffective; its acquisition consumes much time and effort; failure to acquire it is easy of detection.

Remember that, however patient your study, you will never in adult life learn any language perfectly; the best you can hope for is to be a bore.

The only thing that it is advisable to know in any language is the numerals; and even there, you can do a lot with the fingers.

One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland - and no other.

Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation cares about its own identity.

Language exerts hidden powers, like a moon on the tides.