Quotes About Definition

A constellation is not an entity at all, not the kind of thing that Uranus, or anything else, can sensibly be said to 'move into.'

If so, then this definition stands as one of the earliest blueprints, in English, for fundamental reality-box making.

A stone, a figure, a sign, a word reaching us isolated from its context is only that stone, figure, sign, or word: we can try to define them, to describe them as they are, and no more than that; whether, beside the face they show us, they also have a hidden face, is not for us to know. The refusal to comprehend more than what the stones show us is perhaps the only way to evince respect for their secret; trying to guess is a presumption, a betrayal of that true, lost meaning.

Il primo libro sarebbe meglio non averlo mai scritto. Finché il primo libro non è scritto, si possiede quella libertà di cominciare che si può usare una sola volta nella vita, il primo libro già ti definisce mentre tu in realtà sei ancora lontano dall'esser definito; e questa definizione dovrai portartela dietro per la vita, cercando di darne conferma o approfondimento o correzione o smentita, ma mai più riuscendo a prescinderne.

words are always imperfect, words are just sounds we make with our mouths that point our minds to think of things that cannot be fully described in words anyway. I am a writer, so I know where words fail us. A name is not a person, it is just what we have agreed to call them.

Like I said, one man's pornography is another man's brass reading lamp with the articulated adjustable arm and three-way light bulb.

P3- every simple need to which an institutional answer is found permit the invention of a new class of poor and a new definition of poverty

Life for Faraday was, by definition, beyond any kind of mere human meddling. That meant that anything that turned out as a matter of fact, amenable to experimental investigation, simply could not be the principle of life.

Before you find out who you are, you have to figure out who you aren't..

Defining evangelism in a biblical way helps us align our evangelistic practice with the Scriptures. Here's a definition that has served me well for many years: Evangelism is teaching the gospel with the aim to persuade.

Aunque me temo que nos sentimos atraídos por aquello que nos abandona, y por lo que parece más probable que vaya a abandonarnos, finalmente creo que nos define lo que nos acoge.

Space is designated as empty, yet its exact nature cannot be verbalized. Similarly the mind is designated as luminously clear, yet its exact nature is empty, with no ground for definition. Thus the self-nature of mind is and has been from the very beginning like that of space.

Popular science tries to define realities, and then finds that the definition can be extended to any number of unrealities.

Russell's point is that if the set is a member of itself, then by definition it can't be a member of itself. But if it is not a member of itself, then it is a member of itself. So it is both a member of itself and not a member of itself. And that is a contradiction. This glaring mistake, allegedly, left Frege a broken man.

Your security is determined by your ability to define what it is you do that has value. The clearer you can be on what it is you do well and what provides value for someone else, the more security you have.

Being vague is the enemy of a good label.

Who thus define it, say they more or less / Than this, that happiness is happiness?

In the past, work was defined primarily by putting in time, and secondarily on getting results. We need to flip that model

For most of history, our lives were defined by scarcity. Today, the defining feature of social, economic, and cultural life in much of the world is abundance.

Clarity depends on contrast. In

even though entire libraries have been written discussing mental illness, mental health is rarely defined.

This means that more than 95% of the psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, masters-level therapists, occupational therapists, educational therapists, movement therapists, dance therapists, art therapists, music therapists, and others had never been given a lecture defining the mind.

Vigorous enforcement of copyrights themselves is an important part of the picture. But I don't think that expanding the legal definition of copyright outside of actual copyright infringement is the right move.

Overly vigorous investigations of ominously ill-defined 'bullying' can themselves constitute a form of bullying.