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We speak of people "taking refuge" in vagueness — the more precise you are, in general the more likely you are to be wrong, whereas you stand a good chance of not being wrong if you make it vague enough.

— J. L. Austin Sense and Sensibilia (1962)

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More quotes by J. L. Austin

Why should it not be the whole function of a word to denote many things?

Philosophical Papers (1979)

However well equipped our language, it can never be forearmed against all possible cases that may arise and call for description: fact is richer than diction.

Philosophical Papers (1979)

'What is truth?' said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.

It may justly be urged that, properly speaking, what alone has meaning is a sentence.

Philosophical Papers (1979)

Ordinary language blinkers the already feeble imagination.

Philosophical Papers (1979)

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