It may sound strange out of context, but the most memorable quote I've encountered in any book or any piece of writing anywhere, at least in terms of informing my own understanding of language and the construction of meaning through communication, came in a book on screen writing by William Goldman. The guy who wrote The Princess Bride, of all things.
The sentence was simply, (and in capitals in the original), "POETRY IS COMPRESSION."
The sentence was simply, (and in capitals in the original), "POETRY IS COMPRESSION."