J. L. Austin Short Quotes

15 Sourced Quotes

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I am not sure importance is important: truth is.

J. L. Austin
Ordinary language blinkers the already feeble imagination.

J. L. Austin
Why should it not be the whole function of a word to denote many things?

J. L. Austin
It may justly be urged that, properly speaking, what alone has meaning is a sentence.

J. L. Austin
Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing.

J. L. Austin
A sentence is made up of words, a statement is made in words.... Statements are made, words or sentences are used.

J. L. Austin
I feel ruefully sure, also, that one must be at least one sort of fool to rush in over ground so well trodden by the angels.

J. L. Austin
If we say that I only get at the symptoms of his anger, that carries an important implication. But is this the way we do talk?

J. L. Austin
Infelicity is an ill to which all acts are heir which have the general character of ritual or ceremonial, all conventional acts.

J. L. Austin
It should be quite clear, then, that there are no criteria to be laid down in general for distinguishing the real from the not real.

J. L. Austin
Let us distinguish between acting intentionally and acting deliberately or on purpose, as far as this can be done by attending to what language can teach us.

J. L. Austin
Ordinary language is not the last word: in principle it can everywhere be supplemented and improved upon and superseded. Only remember, it is the first word.

J. L. Austin
However well equipped our language, it can never be forearmed against all possible cases that may arise and call for description: fact is richer than diction.

J. L. Austin
Faced with the nonsense question 'What is the meaning of a word?' and perhaps dimly recognizing it to be nonsense, we are nevertheless not inclined to give it up.

J. L. Austin
We become obsessed with 'truth' when discussing statements, just as we become obsessed with 'freedom' when discussing conduct... Like freedom, truth is a bare minimum or an illusory ideal.

J. L. Austin