Ayer, Alfred Jules

"Moral language expresses attitudes, not propositions."

"Reality is not given to us; it is constructed through language and experience."

"The critique of metaphysics is the central task of modern philosophy."

"What distinguishes sense from nonsense is the possibility of empirical testing."

"Human understanding is bounded by the structure of language itself."

"The debate over existence of God rests on linguistic confusion about the word 'exist.'"

"All synthetic knowledge is provisional and subject to revision."

"The unity of science rests on its unified method: empirical verification."

"Abstract concepts derive their meaning from possible concrete applications."

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

"Philosophy is not a doctrine but an activity—the activity of clarification."

"Categories we inherit from language may distort our understanding of reality."

"Beauty cannot be rationally debated; it can only be appreciated or dismissed."

"The atomic facts of the world correspond to the atomic propositions of language."

"Skepticism about the external world dissolves when we attend to how language works."

"Every meaningful question has an answer discoverable through proper analysis."

"The task of clarification is more important than the construction of systems."

"Emotional responses to art are primary; critical judgments are secondary."

"Our intuitions about logic are shaped by the structure of our language."

"The verification principle, properly applied, eliminates much philosophical confusion."

"Truth and falsity apply only to propositions about empirical matters."

"Language is the instrument by which we carve up reality into objects and properties."

"Wittgenstein showed that many philosophical problems are solved by attending to use."

"The search for necessary truths in the empirical world is fundamentally misguided."

"Identity and individuation depend on our conceptual schemes, not on nature itself."

"The meaning of life cannot be expressed; it can only be shown through living."

"Abstract objects like numbers are useful fictions, not inhabitants of a Platonic realm."

"Every philosophical system must eventually confront the limits of language."

"Our access to reality is always mediated by the categories we inherit from language."

"The principle of charity requires that we interpret others charitably to understand them."