Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was a Mexican writer and received the 1990 Nobel Prize in literature. The rest of this post is some quotes from Paz.
1. "The relations between rhetoric and ethics are disturbing: the ease with which language can be twisted is worrisome, and the fact that our minds accept these perverse games so docilely is no less cause for concern. We ought to subject language to a diet of bread and water if we wish to keep it from being corrupted and corrupting us... Unweave the verbal fabric: reality will appear." (The Monkey Grammarian, 1974)
2. "Language lies outside society because it is its foundation; but it also lies within society because that is the only place where it exists and the only place where it develops." (Alternating Current, 1973)
