Austin, John Langshaw

"One should respect every sentence by trying to understand it."

"The proposition is a picture of the fact in the logical space."

"What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence, and perhaps return to the unspeakable later."

"The ethics of our day are relative; but ethics as such are absolute."

"Whereof we cannot speak, we should speak even less."

"Architecture is a gesture made by civilization."

"I have never written anything 'for' someone else; I have always written for myself."

"The work belongs to those who have had the fortune to do it well."

"The mystery of life is manifested in the mystery of being."

"To be clear about the ethical is to be unclear about everything else."

"A proposition determines a place in logical space. The existence of this place is guaranteed by the mere existence of the constituents."

"One should turn pale reading Dante, not from the excitement but from the revelation."

"The subject does not belong to the world; rather, it is a limit of the world."

"As people of practical intelligence, we often see what will happen before it happens."

"The great works of humanity are those that speak to the future."

"What would the world be like if I were not in it? Exactly the same."

"All that is the case is the totality of facts, not of things."

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."

"One must learn to love well before one can teach it to others."

"The self is what thinks, but the thinker is not in the world."

"Courage is not the absence of fear but action in the face of it."

"When you talk about essence you are always saying that things could not be other than they are."

"A man is not a crystal that keeps its form; he is something that moves and changes but maintains identity."

"The human face is not a simple configuration; it speaks volumes."

"To understand is to see the connections."

"In matters of the spirit, we must not think in images."

"A thought is a proposition with a sense."

"The propositions of natural science tell us nothing about the world; they describe facts."

"One can imagine someone arguing, with great passion, for or against a proposition."

"Only death is certain; everything else is a matter of degree."