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Top 20 J. L. Austin Quotes (2025 Update)

J. L. Austin Quote: “Sentences are not as such either true or false.”

1. “Sentences are not as such either true or false.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “Faced with the nonsense question ‘What is the meaning of a word?’ and perhaps dimly recognizing it to be nonsense, we are nevertheless not inclined to give it up.”

2. “Faced with the nonsense question ‘What is the meaning of a word?’ and perhaps dimly recognizing it to be nonsense, we are nevertheless not inclined to give it up.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “The theory of truth is a series of truisms.”

3. “The theory of truth is a series of truisms.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “I feel ruefully sure, also, that one must be at least one sort of fool to rush in over ground so well trodden by the angels.”

4. “I feel ruefully sure, also, that one must be at least one sort of fool to rush in over ground so well trodden by the angels.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “Usually it is uses of words, not words in themselves, that are properly called vague.”

5. “Usually it is uses of words, not words in themselves, that are properly called vague.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “You are more than entitled not to know what the word ‘performative’ means. It is a new word and an ugly word, and perhaps it doesnot mean anything very much. But at any rate there is one thing in its favor, it is not a profound word.”

6. “You are more than entitled not to know what the word ‘performative’ means. It is a new word and an ugly word, and perhaps it doesnot mean anything very much. But at any rate there is one thing in its favor, it is not a profound word.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “After all 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.”

7. “After all 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

J. L. Austin Quote: “Ordinary language embodies the metaphysics of the Stone Age.”

8. “Ordinary language embodies the metaphysics of the Stone Age.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing.”

9. “Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “There are more ways of outraging speech than contradiction merely.”

10. “There are more ways of outraging speech than contradiction merely.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “Let us distinguish between acting intentionally and acting deliberately or on purpose, as far as this can be done by attending to what language can teach us.”

11. “Let us distinguish between acting intentionally and acting deliberately or on purpose, as far as this can be done by attending to what language can teach us.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “Fact is richer than diction.”

12. “Fact is richer than diction.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “I begin, then, with some remarks about ‘the meaning of a word.’ I think many persons now see all or part of what I shall say: but not all do, and there is a tendency to forget, or to get it slightly wrong. In so far as I am merely flogging the converted, I apologize to them.”

13. “I begin, then, with some remarks about ‘the meaning of a word.’ I think many persons now see all or part of what I shall say: but not all do, and there is a tendency to forget, or to get it slightly wrong. In so far as I am merely flogging the converted, I apologize to them.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “Going back into the history of a word, very often into Latin, we come back pretty commonly to pictures or models of how things happen or are done.”

14. “Going back into the history of a word, very often into Latin, we come back pretty commonly to pictures or models of how things happen or are done.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “Infelicity is an ill to which all acts are heir which have the general character of ritual or ceremonial, all conventional acts.”

15. “Infelicity is an ill to which all acts are heir which have the general character of ritual or ceremonial, all conventional acts.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing. It embodies, indeed, something better thanthe metaphysics of the Stone Age, namely, as was said, the inherited experience and acumen of many generations of men.”

16. “Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing. It embodies, indeed, something better thanthe metaphysics of the Stone Age, namely, as was said, the inherited experience and acumen of many generations of men.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “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.”

17. “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

J. L. Austin Quote: “It should be quite clear, then, that there are no criteria to be laid down in general for distinguishing the real from the not real.”

18. “It should be quite clear, then, that there are no criteria to be laid down in general for distinguishing the real from the not real.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “In one sense ‘there are’ both universals and material objects, in another sense there is no such thing as either: statements about each can usually be analysed, but not always, nor always without remainder.”

19. “In one sense ‘there are’ both universals and material objects, in another sense there is no such thing as either: statements about each can usually be analysed, but not always, nor always without remainder.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “In the one defense, briefly, we accept responsibility but deny that it was bad: in the other, we admit that it was bad but don’t accept full, or even any, responsibility.”

20. “In the one defense, briefly, we accept responsibility but deny that it was bad: in the other, we admit that it was bad but don’t accept full, or even any, responsibility.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “But I owe it to the subject to say, that it has long afforded me what philosophy is so often thought, and made, barren of – the fun of discovery, the pleasures of co-operation, and the satisfaction of reaching agreement.”

21. “But I owe it to the subject to say, that it has long afforded me what philosophy is so often thought, and made, barren of – the fun of discovery, the pleasures of co-operation, and the satisfaction of reaching agreement.”

— J. L. Austin

J. L. Austin Quote: “Why should it not be the whole function of a word to denote many things?”

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

— J. L. Austin

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