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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.

— J. L. Austin Philosophical Papers (1979)

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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)

'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)

Sentences are not as such either true or false.

Sense and Sensibilia (1962)

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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.