Ordinary language is not the last word: in principle it can everywhere be supplemented and improved upon and superseded. Only remember, it is the first word. (J. L. Austin)

Ordinary language is not the last word: in principle it can everywhere be supplemented and improved upon and superseded. Only remember, it is the first word.

J. L. Austin

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language last word

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Because it equates tradition with prejudice, the left finds itself increasingly unable to converse with ordinary people in their common language.

Christopher Lasch

Man's inhumanity to man is not the last word. The truth lies deeper. It is economic slavery, the savage struggle for a crumb, that has converted mankind into wolves and sheep.

Alexander Berkman

For a large class of cases -- though not for all -- in which we employ the word ''meaning'' it can be defined thus the meaning of a word is its use in the language.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff.

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Language has created the word "loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude” to express the glory of being alone.

Paul Tillich