The connection between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary.

I’m almost never serious, and I’m always too serious. Too deep, too shallow. Too sensitive, too cold hearted. I’m like a collection of paradoxes.

Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.

Henceforth, language studies were no longer directed merely towards correcting grammar.

Everyone, left to his own devices, forms an idea about what goes on in language which is very far from the truth.

The critical principle demanded an examination, for instance, of the contribution of different periods, thus to some extent embarking on historical linguistics.

Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.