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A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin

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

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We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves. – John Locke

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Language

Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides. – Rita Mae Brown

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Language

Language is by its very nature a communal thing; that is, it expresses never the exact thing but a compromise — that which is common to you, me, and everybody. – Thomas Earnest Hulme, Speculations, 1923

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Language

Lymph, v.: to walk with a lisp. – From a Washington Post reader submission word contest

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Language

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