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An ambiguity, in ordinary speech, means something very pronounced, and as a rule witty or deceitful. . . . any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language.

— William Empson Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930)

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More quotes by William Empson

The central function of imaginative literature is to make you realize that other people act on moral convictions different from your own.

Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.

Legal Fiction (1928)

Man, as the prying housemaid of the soul.

This Last Pain (1930)

There is a supreme God in the ethnological section; . . .
His smooth wood creeps with all the creeds of the world.

Homage to the British Museum (1935)

Life involves maintaining oneself between contradictions that can't be solved by analysis.

Bacchus (1935)

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Attribution

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