Definitions Quotes

As a culture, the West has found itself in a strange, not battle of the genders, but battle in one`s own gender. There`s been so much equalizing that we`ve all kind of lost a little sense of who and what we`re about, and a certain amount of definitions of who and what being a woman and being a man is about. It`s almost like a murky middle ground that sometimes diffuses the definition and out of that has indeed spawned, in certain areas, misogynism.

"My experience is that I find myself having to constantly define myself to others, day-in, day-out. The quote that`s helped me the most through that is from Toni Morrison`s "Beloved" where she says, "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined" - so I find myself defining myself for other people lest I be defined by others and stuck into some box where I don`t particularly belong".

Just letting it out is one of the definitions of bad art.

I don`t like definitions, but if there is a definition of freedom, it would be when you have control over your reality to transform it, to change it, rather than having it imposed upon you. You can`t really ask for more than.

We must think differently, look at things in a different way. Peace requires a world of new concepts, new definitions.

Our scientific age demands that we provide definitions, measurements, and statistics in order to be taken seriously. Yet most of the important things in life cannot be precisely defined or measured. Can we define or measure love, beauty, friendship, or decency, for example?

A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness.

Just definitions either prevent or put an end to a dispute.

Crabbed and obscure definitions are of no use beyond a narrow circle of students, of whom probably every one has a pet one of his own.

It is odd how learned persons fail to see that new terms and definitions are apt to mean new doubts and litigation.

It is this way that in mathematics speculative theorems and practical canons are reduced by analysis to definitions, axioms and postulates.

The large number of safety studies indicates that this issue has received a great amount of attention. Unfortunately, many of these studies involve more advocacy than science. It`s not that these studies aren`t valuable, but they have problems with methodology, statistical analysis and even simple understanding of important terms, such as `speeding.` In accident data, speeding is defined as both `traveling faster than the posted limit` and `traveling too fast for conditions.` Studies often do not differentiate between these definitions.

One of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal. Soon we`ll need a new definition.

Most controversies would soon be ended, if those engaged in them would first accurately define their terms, and then adhere to their definitions.