And what a noble medium the English language is. It is not possible to write a page without experiencing positive pleasure at the richness and variety, the flexibility and the profoundness of our mother-tongue.

I am going to give you a warning: be on your guard, because I am going to speak, or try to speak, in French, a formidable undertaking and one which will put great demands on your friendship for Great Britain.

The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.

To have a second language at your disposal, even if you only know it enough to read it with pleasure, is a sensible advantage....to secure the enormous boon of access to a second literature. Choose well, choose wisely, and choose one.

Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence, which is a noble thing.

The recognition of their language is precious to a small people.