These expressions come to be the algebraic symbols of minds which have grown too weak or indolent to discriminate.

They are the blank checks of intellectual bankruptcy;--you may fill them up with what idea you like; it makes no difference, for there are no funds in the treasury upon which they are drawn.

Colleges and good-for-nothing smoking-clubs are the places where these conversational fungi spring up most luxuriantly.

Don't think I undervalue the proper use and application of a cant word or phrase.

It adds piquancy to conversation, as a mushroom does to a sauce.