Quotes · Skopia

10 quotes

SortEditorial Year Length

Topic·Meaning of words✕clear

It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is.

1998

★ 7.1

Words strain, Crack and sometimes break, under the burden Under the tension, slip, slide, perish, Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, Will not stay still.

Burnt Norton · 1936

★ 4.5

Supreme Court opinion · Legal opinion · Legal writing

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought, and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Towne v. Eisner · 1918

★ 4.3

Film · Comedy (film) · Fantasy (film) · Comedy · Fantasy

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

The Princess Bride · 1987

★ 3.8

Letter · Political writing

Dictionaries are but the depositories of words already legitimated by usage. Society is the work-shop in which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses a new word, if illformed it is rejected in society, if well-informed, adopted, and, after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries.

Thomas Jefferson

1820

★ 3.7

Autobiography and memoir

No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

The Education of Henry Adams · 1907

★ 3.6

Words being arbitrary must owe their power to association, and have the influence, and that only, which custom has given them. Language is the dress of thought.

Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets · 1779

★ 3.5

Film · Comedy (film) · Western (film) · Comedy · Western

Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and find out that person has no idea what it means to have a plethora.

Three Amigos! · 1986

★ 3.5

Words mean something different depending on the person who says them, right?

2009

★ 1.2

Interview · Magazine

A writer lives in awe of words for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator.

Paris Review · 1954

★ 1.0