Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1)

by Dan Simmons

Words bend our thinking to infinite paths of self-delusion, and the fact that we spend most of our mental lives in brain mansions built of words means that we lack the objectivity necessary to see the terrible distortion of reality which language brings.

“Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.”

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”