Here are a few quotations from great thinkers as to the need for an
auxiliary language:

The diversity of languages is fatal for genius and progress. If
there were a universal language, we should save a third of life.
(Leibnitz.)

The interrelationships of the peoples are so great that they most
certainly need a universal language. (Montesquieu.)

One of the greatest torments of life is the diversity of language.
(Voltaire.)

What an immeasurable profit it would be for the human race if we were
able to intercommunicate by means of one language. (Volney.)

It seems to me quite possible--probable even--than an artificial
language to be universally used will be greed upon. (Herbert
Spencer.)

The learning of many languages fills the memory with words instead of
facts and thoughts, and this is a vessel which, with every person,
can only contain certain limited amount of records. Therefore the
learning of many languages is injudicious, inasmuch as it arouses
the belief in the possession of dexterity, and, as a matter of
fact, it lends a kind of delusive importance to social intercourse.
It is also injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of solid
knowledge and the intention to win the respect of men in an honest
way. Finally, it is the ax which is laid at the root of a delicate