“Of compelling consideration is the fact that words acquire scope and function from the history of events which they summarize.”

— Felix Frankfurter

Phelps Dodge Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 313 U.S. 177, 185-186 (1941).
Judicial opinions

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Of compelling consideration is the fact that words acquire scope and function from the history of events which they sum…" by Felix Frankfurter?

Felix Frankfurter photo

Felix Frankfurter 67

American judge 1882–1965

Related quotes

“Four sentences summarizing the lessons of History”

Charles A. Beard (1874–1948) American historian

“Reality is not a function of the event as event, but of the relationship of that event to past, and future, events.”

Robert Penn Warren book All the King's Men

Source: All the King's Men

“For I deem it to be the chief function of history to rescue merit from oblivion, and to hold up before evil words and evil deeds the terror of the reprobation of posterity.”

Tacitus book Annals

Book III, 65 https://books.google.com/books?id=rPwLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA247&lpg=PA247&dq=%22rescue+merit+from+oblivion%22+tacitus&source=bl&ots=uZvo03YXoQ&sig=WCpqNyg6Qyg-5xCJP4iiibym6pc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjln4Xl9YbVAhWMHD4KHbHBCc8Q6AEIJDAA#v=onepage&q=%22rescue%20merit%20from%20oblivion%22%20tacitus&f=false
Annals (117)

“The words of the Constitution … are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the individual Justice free, if indeed they do not compel him, to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

The Supreme Court, vol. 3, no. 1, Parliamentary Affairs (London, Winter 1949).
Other writings

“The real problem for the Christian apologist is to find some way apart from the mere facts themselves to establish the justifiability of interpreting facts in a theistic way. No appeal to the mere events or facts themselves will aid in determining which of the alternative interpretations should be placed on the facts. Viewpoints and world views come from without and not from within the facts. Hence, facts or events as such cannot establish theism.”

Norman L. Geisler (1932–2019) American evangelical theologian

Christian Apologetics

“History is not just facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history until we are able to make another's pain in the heart our own.”

Julius Lester (1939–2018) American author

“History is not just facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history until we are able to make another’s pain in the heart our own.”

Sue Monk Kidd (1948) Novelist

Source: The Invention of Wings

“History is written by the survivors, a narrative they compose to explain events to themselves. So the historicity of journals like this one—their accuracy and authenticity—is a function of the reliability of the narrator.”

Charles Stross The Laundry Files

Source: The Laundry Files, The Labyrinth Index (2018), Chapter 8, “A Game of Vampires” (p. 244)

“The entire morality of the world could be summarized in the words, do as others do.”

Multatuli (1820–1887) Dutch author

Multatuli, The Oyster and the Eagle: Selected Aphorisms and Parables

“Marriage -The scope and plan of this work will allow of but the briefest possible consideration of this subject upon which volumes have been written, much to no purpose other than the multiplication of books.”

John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943) American physician

Source: Plain Facts For Old and Young, p.124

Related topics