Quote: language is only the instrument to science; words are but the signs of ideas; words are the daughters of earth and things are the sons of heaven

Quotation

This recommendation of steadiness and uniformity does not proceed from an opinion, that particular combinations of letters have much influence on human happiness; or that truth may not be successfully taught by modes of spelling fanciful and erroneous: I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. Language is only the instrument to science, and words are but the signs of ideas: I wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things which they denote.   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

Additional Titles

Quote: I wish that words might be permanent, like the things which they denote

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