Fine, Kit

"The nature of properties cannot be fully captured by any single theory."

"Vagueness in language does not entail vagueness in the world itself."

"Relations are as real and fundamental as the things they relate."

"The question of identity requires us to be precise about criteria of persistence."

"Abstract entities populate our world in ways as fundamental as concrete particulars."

"To say something is real is to say it has a determinate nature."

"The logic of modality reveals deep truths about the structure of possibility."

"Essence is not a mysterious notion but simply what something must be to be itself."

"We discover rather than invent the principles of identity and difference."

"The problem of universals is not merely academic but cuts to the heart of metaphysics."

"To deny that some things are necessarily true is to undermine all knowledge."

"The nature of time constrains and enables our understanding of change."

"Existence is not a predicate, but what predicates apply to."

"The structure of reality mirrors the structure of coherent thought about it."

"Identity cannot be arbitrary; it must answer to objective facts."

"The philosopher's toolkit includes logic, intuition, and careful argument."

"What something is determines what it can become."

"Properties are not mere appearances but constituents of reality."

"The question of whether abstract objects exist cannot be dismissed as merely verbal."

"To understand the world, we must understand what must be true in any world."

"Necessity flows from the nature of things, not from our concepts."

"The unity of the self through time is a metaphysical fact, not a psychological fiction."

"Modal discourse reveals objective features of reality, not subjective attitudes."

"Vagueness has limits; some determinations are absolute."

"The relation between particulars and universals is neither symmetrical nor obvious."

"To be is to have a nature; to lack a nature is not to be."

"The boundaries we draw around objects reflect genuine discontinuities in reality."

"What persists is not always what appears persistent."

"The questions of metaphysics are not puzzles to be solved but features to be understood."

"Identity is not a relation that objects bear to themselves or other things."