Willard Van Orman Quine

"We cannot achieve a view from nowhere; all knowledge is perspectival."

"Science aims not at truth in any absolute sense but at systematization and prediction."

"Language is a system of habits and conventions."

"The boundary between the logical and the empirical is blurred."

"What we believe depends partly on our evidence and partly on the structure we impose."

"Identity is a relation that obtains between a thing and itself under any description."

"The notion of a meaning that is independent of use is incoherent."

"Ontological commitment is incurred by our theories, not by our words."

"We must revise our conceptual schemes when experience demands it."

"The given is not our starting point; theory goes all the way down."

"What we accept as real depends on what our best theories tell us."

"Language is not a window on the world; it is a tool we use to organize it."

"The problem of universals cannot be solved; it can only be dissolved."

"We are creatures of habit; our beliefs are largely inherited from our culture."

"There is no fact of the matter about which interpretation is correct."

"The notion of synthetic a priori knowledge is confused."

"Logic is not descriptive but prescriptive; it tells us how we should think."

"What counts as evidence depends on our theoretical background."

"Identity through time is a conventional matter, not a deep metaphysical fact."

"The empiricist criterion of meaning sets too high a bar for meaningfulness."

"We construct our understanding of reality through language and thought."