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One man's observation is another man's closed book or flight of fancy.

— Willard van Orman Quine

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More quotes by Willard van Orman Quine

The word 'definition' has come to have a dangerously reassuring sound, owing no doubt to its frequent occurrence in logical and mathematical writings.

Our argument is not flatly circular, but something like it. It has the form, figuratively speaking, of a closed curve in space.

Necessity resides in the way we talk about things, not in the things we talk about.

Ways of Paradox and Other Essays (1976)

Logic chases truth up the tree of grammar.

Philosophy of Logic (1970)

It is within science itself, and not in some prior philosophy, that reality is to be identified and described.

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Willard van Orman Quine (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.