Quote #13

[H]owever 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. --Austin, Papers 195.

More from J. L. Austin

  1. [W]ords are not (except in their own little corner) facts or things: we need therefore to prise them off the world, to hold them apart from…
  2. [O]rdinary language is not the last word: in principle it can everywhere be supplemented and improved upon and superseded. Only remember, i…
  3. Like 'real', 'free' is only used to rule out the suggestion of some or all of its recognized antitheses. As 'truth' is not a name of a char…
  4. Infelicity is an ill to which all acts are heir which have the general character of ritual or ceremonial, all conventional acts.
  5. We become obsessed with 'truth' when discussing statements, just as we become obsessed with 'freedom' when discussing conduct...Like freedo…
  6. Let us distinguish between acting intentionally and acting deliberately or on purpose, as far as this can be done by attending to what lang…
  7. But suppose we take the noun 'truth': here is a case where the disagreements between different theorists have largely turned on whether the…
  8. There are more ways of outraging speech than contradiction merely.

All J. L. Austin quotes