We want words to do more than they can. We try to do with them what comes to very much like trying to mend a watch with a pickaxe or to paint a miniature with a mop; we expect them to help us to grip and dissect that which in ultimate essence is as ungraspable as shadow. Nevertheless, there they are; we have got to live with them, and the wise course is to treat them as we do our neighbors, and make the best and not the worst of them.

The Note Books of Samuel Butler