LANGUAGE

“[As president] I refused to suffer in silence. I sighed, sobbed, and groaned, and sometimes screeched and screamed. And I must confess to my shame and sorrow that I sometimes swore.”

—JOHN ADAMS

“Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well.”

—THOMAS JEFFERSON, to his daughter Martha

“I never learned to swear.… I could never see the use of swearing.… I have always noticed… that swearing helps to rouse a man’s anger.”

—ULYSSES S. GRANT

“I am not aware of ever having used a profane expletive in life; but I would have the charity to excuse those who may have done so, if they were in charge of a train of Mexican pack mules.”

—ULYSSES S. GRANT

“One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called ‘weasel words.’ When a weasel sucks eggs the meat is sucked out of the egg. If you use a ‘weasel word’ after another there is nothing left of the other.”

—THEODORE ROOSEVELT

“The literary gift is a very dangerous gift to possess if you are not telling the truth, and I would a great deal rather, for my part, have a man stumble in his speech than to feel he was so exceedingly smooth that he had better be watched both day and night.”

—WOODROW WILSON

“People said my language was bad but, Jesus, you should have heard LBJ!”

—RICHARD NIXON

“Fluency in English is something that I’m often not accused of.”

—GEORGE H. W. BUSH