Quine, Willard Van Orman

"The pragmatist tests ideas by their consequences, not by their correspondence to reality."

"Language is conventional, but not arbitrary—it serves our purposes."

"Synonymy is a myth of philosophers, not a fact of language."

"We revise our beliefs continuously, guided by experience and logic."

"Existence claims depend on which logical framework we adopt."

"The universe of discourse is something we create, not discover."

"Physicalism need not deny the reality of abstract objects."

"Reference is mediated by our theories, never direct."

"True statements are those that cohere with our best overall theory."

"We know the world only through the lens of language and theory."

"Nominalism and realism are not metaphysical facts but pragmatic choices."

"Stimulus and response are separated by interpretation."

"The web of belief is holistic—pulling one strand affects all others."

"Categories are human inventions, not features of reality itself."

"Necessity is a function of our language, not of the world."

"We construct our ontology to best suit our purposes."

"Translation is always interpretive; perfect translation is impossible."

"The underdetermination of theory by evidence is inevitable."

"Meaning and reference are not fixed by the mind alone."

"What we call 'truth' is better understood as coherence within a system."

"Empiricism must accept that some principles are presupposed, not derived."

"The rigid designator is a useful fiction, not a metaphysical fact."

"Our conceptual scheme shapes what counts as an object."

"Logic is revisable in light of experience."

"Abstraction is not extraction; it is creation."

"The distinction between questions and pseudo-questions depends on context."

"We cannot step outside our conceptual scheme to test it against reality."

"Determinacy of meaning is an ideal we approach but never reach."

"Stimulus meaning is all the objectivity we can have."

"Properties are not intrinsic but relative to a description."