Contextual Dependence Quotes

It depends on what the meaning of “is” is.

Wittgenstein's ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler's reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table you may also be using the table to measure the ruler.

Words are chameleons, which reflect the color of their environment.

There is a myth, sometimes widespread, that a person need only do inner work...that a man is entirely responsible for his own problems; and that to cure himself, he need only change himself....The fact is, a person is so formed by his surroundings, that his state of harmony depends entirely on his harmony with his surroundings.

A weapon isn't good or bad, depends on the person who uses it.

Sometimes six and six make a dozen, and sometimes they make a mess

The Bible is like a bull fiddle, you can play almost any tune you want on it.

No one acts or experiences in a vacuum.

No language exists that cannot be misused... Every Interpretation is hypothetical, for it is a mere attempt to read an unfamiliar text.

I am sometimes visited by the heretical thought that there is no such thing as good and bad architecture, any more than there is good and bad nature. It is all in where you stand at the time.

Perception is a tool that's pointed on both ends.

Do remember that one line does nothing; it is only in relation to another that it creates a volume.

who says dog means dog?

Sometimes, words have consequences you don't intend them to mean.

Words can have no single fixed meaning. Like wayward electrons, they can spin away from their initial orbit and enter a wider magnetic field. No one owns them or has a proprietary right to dictate how they will be used.

Meow is like aloha - it can mean anything.

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

The more you try to pin a word down, the more you realize that it has its own cape, sword and little hat.

I once said to a boy, 'You're a really good kisser,' and he said, 'You're only as good as the person you're kissing.' I think it's the same with the music.

It all depends what you mean by.

Sovereign," like "love," means anything you want it to mean; it's a word in dictionary between "sober" and "sozzled.

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

An object is not so attached to its name that we cannot find another one that would suit it better.

I want to make clear only that words are not the things spoken about, and that there is no such thing as an object in absolute isolation.

Words have a life of their own. There is no telling what they will do. Within a matter of days, they can even turn turtle and mean the opposite.