Quote #16

Let us distinguish between acting intentionally and acting deliberately or on purpose, as far as this can be done by attending to what language can teach us.

More from J. L. Austin

  1. Infelicity is an ill to which all acts are heir which have the general character of ritual or ceremonial, all conventional acts.
  2. There are more ways of outraging speech than contradiction merely.
  3. [O]rdinary language is not the last word: in principle it can everywhere be supplemented and improved upon and superseded. Only remember, i…
  4. When may we hope to see your Harvard lectures published sir?' an undergraduate asked the late Professor Austin. 'You may hope to see them p…
  5. [H]owever well equipped our language, it can never be forearmed against all possible cases that may arise and call for description: fact is…
  6. [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…
  7. 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…
  8. We become obsessed with 'truth' when discussing statements, just as we become obsessed with 'freedom' when discussing conduct...Like freedo…

All J. L. Austin quotes