"Was it Mirabeau, Mr.President, or what other master of the human passions, who has told us that words are things?
They are indeed things, and things of mighty influence, not only in addresses to the passions and high-wrought feelings of mankind, but in the discussion of legal and political questions also; because a just conclusion is often avoided, or a false one reached, by the adroit substitution of one phrase or one word for an other."-- _Daniel Webster, in Congress_, 1833.
2.

To speak, is a moral action, the quality of which depends upon the motive, and for which we are strictly accountable.

"But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement; for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."-- _Matt._, xii, 36, 37.

To listen, or to refuse to listen, is a moral action also; and there is meaning in the injunction, "Take heed what ye hear."-- _Mark_, iv, 24.

But why is it, that so much of what is spoken or written, is spoken or written in vain?
Is language impotent?
It is sometimes employed for purposes with respect to which it is utterly so; and often they that use it, know not how insignificant, absurd, or ill-meaning a thing they make of it.