'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master'

[wolfinthewood]

Somehow I can't get this passage out of my mind at the moment.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.'
     'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
     'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master – that's all.'
     Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. 'They've a temper, some of them – particularly verbs, they're the proudest – adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs – however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!'

Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)

from Through the Looking Glass (1872)

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