“We cannot stem linguistic change, but we can drag our feet.”

—  Willard van Orman Quine

Quiddities: An Intermittently Philosophical Dictionary (1987), p. 231
1980s and later
Context: We cannot stem linguistic change, but we can drag our feet. If each of us were to defy Alexander Pope and be the last to lay the old aside, it might not be a better world, but it would be a lovelier language.

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Willard van Orman Quine 25
American philosopher and logician 1908–2000

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