Willard Van Orman Quine

"The notion of psychological states independent of behavior is confused."

"Science progresses not through accumulation but through conceptual reorganization."

"Identity across time is a practical convention, not a metaphysical fact."

"What cannot be said clearly is best passed over in silence—but there is more to say than Wittgenstein thought."

"The correspondence theory of truth founders on the question of correspondence."

"Universals are in the mind or not in the world; they are useful fictions."

"We accept into our ontology whatever our best scientific theories require us to accept."

"The principle of parsimony favors simpler theories, but simplicity is relative to our conceptual scheme."

"Language is not a code that maps uniquely onto reality."

"Every assertion we make is made against the background of a system of accepted propositions."

"The law of non-contradiction is not a law of nature but a law of thought."

"Necessity and analyticity are matters of degree."

"The notion of a fact independent of conceptualization is unclear."

"We are not passive receivers of sensory data but active constructors of experience."

"The problem of other minds is really the problem of other bodies."

"What counts as an object depends on our conceptual framework."

"Science is continuous with common sense but more systematic and comprehensive."

"Meaning is holistic; isolated sentences have no meaning."

"The notion of intrinsic properties is confused; all properties are relational."

"We must distinguish between the justification of a belief and its causal origin."

"Reductionism is a methodological ideal, not a metaphysical thesis."

"The criterion of identity for abstract objects is unclear."

"Language is not transparent; we must be aware of its conventions and limits."

"What we call experience is already shaped by our linguistic and conceptual practices."

"The analytic-synthetic distinction was a dogma that needed overcoming."

"Existence is relative to a background theory."

"Every interpretation of experience is an interpretation relative to a background of beliefs."

"The principle of charity requires us to interpret others charitably."

"Objects are not presented to us ready-made; we construct them."

"The notion of absolute truth makes no sense; truth is always relative to a conceptual scheme."