Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
2020
AUTHOR:
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841–1935)
QUOTATION:
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.
ATTRIBUTION:
Justice OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, Towne v. Eisner, 245 U.S. 425 (1918).
