“How true it is that words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean.”
Theodore Dreiser book Sister Carrie
Source: Sister Carrie
Source: Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard (2015), Chapter 2, “Possibilities and Myths” (p. 27)
“How true it is that words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean.”
Theodore Dreiser book Sister Carrie
Source: Sister Carrie
Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768) German philosopher
Source: Fragments from Reimarus: Consisting of Brief Critical Remarks on the Object of Jesus and His Disciples as Seen in the New Testament, pp. 76–77
Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17 http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/92-1168.ZC.html (1993) (concurring). <br class="br">1990s
Theodore Dreiser book Sister Carrie
Variant: How true it is that words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes.
Source: Sister Carrie
“Like all such prophecies, it’s impressive only if not examined too closely.”
Michael Bishop (1945) American writer
Source: A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire (1975), Chapter 13, “Aftermath: Sarcophagi and Coffins” (p. 249)