27 Quotes About Definition

Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on. Stephen King

Man, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably out to be. His chief occupation is the extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada. Ambrose Bierce

Consensus: “The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner: ‘I stand for consensus? Margaret Thatcher

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same. Oscar Wilde

An infinite question is often destroyed by finite answers. To define everything is to annihilate much that gives us laughter and joy. Madeleine LEngle

Definitions are vital starting points for the imagination. What we cannot imagine cannot come into being. A good definition marks our starting point and lets us know where we want to end up. As we move toward our desired destination we chart the journey, creating a map. We need a map to guide us on our journey to love--starting with the place where we know what we mean when we speak of love. Bell Hooks

Every one has experienced how learning an appropriate name for what was dim and vague cleared up and crystallized the whole matter. Some meaning seems distinct almost within reach, but is elusive; it refuses to condense into definite form; the attaching of a word somehow (just how, it is almost impossible to say) puts limits around the meaning, draws it out from the void, makes it stand out as an entity on its own account. John Dewey

She was convinced a word existed, a noun, that meant the loss of feelings for someone who was formerly loved–a word for the act of falling out of love. I said I couldn't think of it. It wasn't in the dictionary either, not the one she wanted. Olivia Sudjic

Mizuko loved reading the dictionary. She liked it when there were multiple meanings for words and when opposite meanings could be contained. Olivia Sudjic

Though words are arbitrary in their primitive institution, yet when once their signification is fixed, we are no more entitled to alter it than to call a tree an elephant; for, being no man's private possession, but the common measures of commerce and communication, it is not for any one at pleasure to change the stamp they are current in; at least where there is a necessity to do so, notice of it should be given. Richard Kirwan

Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his. Ronald Reagan

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. Mark Twain

I'm going to use them to track him down and thwart him." "Thwart?" Sarissa asked." Thwart." I said. "To prevent someone from accomplishing something by means of visiting gratuitous violence upon his smarmy person."" I'm pretty sure that isn't the definition, " Sarissa said." It is today. Jim Butcher

Once she exclaimed, "But I always thought that sorceresses were evil! "" What do you mean 'evil'?"Lynet has never considered the question. "You know, " she said, after a moment, "unfriendly to people."" People! " repeated Morgana derisively. "As if humans were all that mattered. Just once I'd like to see people judged by how friendly they are to sorceresses. Gerald Morris

If you can’t define something you have no formal rational way of knowing that it exists. Neither can you really tell anyone else what it is. There is, in fact, no formal difference between inability to define and stupidity. Robert M. Pirsig

Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. H.G. Wells

The definition of a philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black hat, which isn’t really there. And the definition of a theologian is he’s somebody who finds it. Michael Ruse

Academe, n.: An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy, n.: A modern school where football is taught. Ambrose Bierce

A narcissist is someone better looking than you are. Gore Vidal

Tact: the ability to describe others as they see themselves. Abraham Lincoln

Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others. Ambrose Bierce