Austin, John Langshaw

"Language is the universal medium of hermeneutics."

"The philosopher leaves everything as it is."

"To speak is to act in the world."

"Understanding a word means grasping its possibilities."

"The essence of language lies in its use."

"The meaning of a word is its use in the language."

"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

"Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language."

"Don't ask for the meaning, ask for the use."

"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."

"To imagine a language means to imagine a form of life."

"Language is a labyrinth of paths."

"The world is everything that is the case."

"Facts are what make a proposition true or false."

"A proposition is a picture of reality."

"We cannot think of anything so strange that it has not been said by one philosopher or another."

"The more you own, the more it owns you."

"How do you know you are not dreaming right now?"

"Whereof one cannot speak, one must pass over in silence."

"A picture held us captive. And we could not get outside it."

"The question of life remained unanswered."

"Ambition is the last refuge of failure."

"In order to draw a limit to thinking, we should have to think both sides of this limit."

"It is one thing to describe methods of language, and quite another to describe reality."

"The object of philosophy is the clarification of thoughts."

"What can be shown, cannot be said."

"The world is independent of my will."

"Logical impossibility is not the same as factual impossibility."

"Language is a tool, but not all tools are languages."