Then your words of abuse today may turn into a universally valid principle of denigration, for words are magical formulae. They leave fingermarks behind on the brain, which in the twinkling of an eye becomes the footprints of history. One ought to watch one’s every word. – Franz Kafka, quoted by Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka

Platitude. An idea (a)that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b)that is not true. – H.L. Mencken, “The Jazz Webster,” A Book of Burlesques, 1920