‘Ouch’ is not independent of social training. One has only to prick a foreigner to appreciate that it is an English word. – Willard Van Orman Quine
The familiar material objects may not be all that is real, but they are admirable examples. – Willard Van Orman Quine
Uncritical semantics is the myth of a museum in which the exhibits are meanings and the words are labels. To switch languages is to change the labels. – Willard Van Orman Quine
Meaning is what essence becomes when it is divorced from the object of reference and wedded to the word. – Willard Van Orman Quine
It is one of the consolations of philosophy that the benefit of showing how to dispense with a concept does not hinge on dispensing with it. – Willard Van Orman Quine
Physics investigates the essential nature of the world, and biology describes a local bump. Psychology, human psychology, describes a bump on the bump. – Willard Van Orman Quine
