No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

 Henry B Adams

 

‘There’s glory for you!’

‘I don’t know what you mean by “glory”,’ Alice said.

‘I meant, “there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!” ‘

‘But “glory” doesn’t mean “a nice knock-down argument”,’ Alice objected.

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’

from Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll