Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Quotes

Whatever the framers … intended, there is no reason to believe that they possessed the best insights or ultimate wisdom as to the meaning of their words for subsequent generations ... Words do not have fixed meanings.

Words do have a limited range of meaning, and no interpretation that goes beyond that range is permissible.

Words are not pebbles in alien juxtaposition.

Man’s writing has but one true sense, which is that which the Author meant when he writ it.

We are too apt, in estimating a law passed at a remote period, to combine in our consideration, all the subsequent events which have had an influence upon it, instead of confining ourselves (which we ought to do) to the existing circumstances at the time of its passing.

Words, words. They're all we have to go on.

I don't really believe anything I say. Because the nature of my work concerns the spaces between the words, rather than the words themselves.

A word is no light matter. Words have with truth been called fossil poetry, each, that is, a symbol of a creative thought.

Words mean more than we mean to express when we use them: so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer meant.

It is the man determines what is said, not the words.

Words must be taken according to the matter whereof they are uttered.

Semantics is about the relation of words to thoughts, but it also about the relation of words to other human concerns. Semantics is about the relation of words to reality - the way that speakers commit themselves to a shared understanding of the truth, and the way their thoughts are anchored to things and situations in the world.

No word is absolutely wrong or dirty or insulting. It all depends upon context and intention.

Words have meaning. And their meaning doesn't change.

All our work, our whole life is a matter of semantics, because words are the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made, out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our understanding of them.

Language is a tool adequate to provide any degree of precision relevant to a particular situation.

There are about 30 words around you all the time, like 'thread' or 'exit.'

Metaphor matters because it creates expectations.

Without a possibility of change in meanings human communication could not perform its present functions.

Language is froth on the surface of thought.

Thus, we see that one of the obvious origins of human disagreement lies in the use of noises for words.

An easy solution for many controversies may be found as long as we are able to be on our guard for the same words being used with conflicting meanings by different authors.

Intention and construction of words shall be taken according to the vulgar and usual sense

For language to have meaning, there must be intervals of silence somewhere, to divide word from word and utterance from utterance. He who retires into silence does not necessarily hate language. Perhaps it is love and respect for language which imposes silence upon him. For the mercy of God is not heard in words unless it is heard, both before and after the words are spoken, in silence.

The words that are coming out of my mouth and how I mean them, it's so much different.