As against Russell, I shall say this. Meaning (in at least one important sense) is a function of the sentence or expression; menti...oning and referring and truth or falsity, are functions of the use of the sentence or expression. To give the meaning of a sentence (in the sense in which I am using the word) is to give general directions for its use to refer to or mention particular objects or persons; to give the meaning of a sentence is to give general directions for its use in making true or false assertions.... The meaning of an expression cannot be identified with the object it is used, on a particular occasion, to refer to. The meaning of a sentence cannot be identified with the assertion it is used, on a particular occasion, to make.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When we speak the word "life," it must be understood we are not referring to life as we know it from its surface of fact, but to t...hat fragile, fluctuating center which forms never reach.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Is suffering so very serious? I have come to doubt it. It may be quite childish, a sort of undignified pastime--I'm referring to t...he kind of suffering a man inflicts on a woman or a woman on a man. It's extremely painful. I agree that it's hardly bearable. But I very much fear that this sort of pain deserves no consideration at all. It's no more worthy of respect than old age or illness.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
During the years 1945-1965 (I am referring to Europe), there was a certain way of thinking correctly, a certain style of political... discourse, a certain ethics of the intellectual. One had to be on familiar terms with Marx, not let one's dreams stray too far from Freud.... These were the ... requirements that made the strange occupation of writing and speaking a measure of truth about oneself and one's time acceptable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Usually, when people talk about the "strength" of black women they are referring to the way in which they perceive black women cop...ing with oppression. They ignore the reality that to be strong in the face of oppression is not the same as overcoming oppression, that endurance is not to be confused with transformation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
According to the dictionary: "In modern apprehension man as thus used" [in the sense of "person"] "primarily denotes the male sex,... though by implication referring also to women." I am not sure that "by implication" fully expresses the degree to which I wish to feel included in the human race.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have often been reproached with the aridity of my genius; a deficiency of imagination has been imputed to me as a crime; and the... Pyrrhonism of my opinions has at all times rendered me notorious. Indeed, a strong relish for physical philosophy has, I fear, tinctured my mind with a very common error of this age--I mean the habit of referring occurrences, even the least susceptible of such reference, to the principles of that science.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Meanwhile Snow White held court, rolling her china-blue doll eyes open and shut... and sometimes referring to her mirror as women do.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is s...ubversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
And he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like... eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »