Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Sentences using 'is' create structural confusion leading to fallacies.
In plain terms
Avoid using 'is' to prevent logical errors.
What can you take from it?
Rephrase to avoid 'is' confusion.

Where it applies

  • writing
  • reasoning
  • analysis

Putting it to work

  • replace 'is'
  • clarify relations

Questions to consider

  • How often does 'is' mislead you?
  • Where do you see identity confusion?

Another view

Grammar requires 'is' in many cases.

More from Alfred Korzybski

  1. It is amusing to discover, in the twentieth century, that the quarrels between two lovers, two mathematicians, two nations, two economic systems, usually assum…

    Permalink to quote #13
  2. If words are not things, or maps are not the actual territory, then, obviously, the only possible link between the objective world and the linguistic world is …

    Permalink to quote #15
  3. God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won't. (Korzybski states that it is not his quote in S&S)

    Permalink to quote #12

Related quotes

  1. [A Game:] We begin by asking the meaning of every word uttered:Then we ask the meaning of the words used in the definitions and, and this process is continued …

    Alfred KorzybskiAlfred Korzybski quote #27
  2. Distinction without a difference.

    Henry FieldingHenry Fielding quote #34
  3. 'Therefore' is a word the poet must not know.

    Andre GideAndre Gide quote #45