“Whatever the word "great" means, Dickens was what it means.”
Source: Charles Dickens (1906), Ch 1 : "The Dickens Period"
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G. K. Chesterton 229
English mystery novelist and Christian apologist 1874–1936Related quotes
“It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.”
Grand jury testimony (August 17, 1998), answering questions about his attorney's description of an affidavit by Monica Lewinsky
1990s
Context: It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the—if he—if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement. … Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.
“The real me lives in words, not in what words mean.”
“Like a great word once known and lost
And meaning all things.”
Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage
Context: It is not given me to trace
The lovely laughter of that face,
Like a clear brook most full of light,
Or olives swaying on a height,
So silver they have wings, almost;
Like a great word once known and lost
And meaning all things. Nor her voice
A happy sound where larks rejoice,
Her body, that great loveliness,
The tender fashion of her dress,
I may not paint them.
These I see,
Blazing through all eternity,
A fire-winged sign, a glorious tree!
“ERA means abortion funding, means homosexual privileges, means whatever else.”
[Beth, Fouhy, http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/08/25/fouhy.maloney/, A new version of the ERA, CNN.com, 1999-08-25, 2007-03-30]
Magnus Bane and Ragnor Fell in 1791, p. 9.
The Bane Chronicles, What Really Happened in Peru (2013)
“Do you know what humanity is, what the word "human" means? The word human”
Love is not a feeling ~ The Interview (1995)
Context: Do you know what humanity is, what the word "human" means? The word human where I come from - which is the enlightened state - means suffering. So when you say you're a human being, you're saying you're a suffering being. And I say you have to get rid of your suffering and then be being. Enlightenment is the state of being which I am, this moment and every moment. So I'm not suffering. But humanity loves to suffer. People love to suffer because they love to get excited with their feelings. All you've got to do is get rid of your feelings, which are always negative. Why not get rid of the whole lot of it, now? That means you don't know feelings and then you don't know negativity, and then you'd be in love, and then you would love everybody by not loving anybody in particular as a feeling. That's the state of enlightenment.
“Faced with the nonsense question "What is the meaning of a word?"”
and perhaps dimly recognizing it to be nonsense, we are nevertheless not inclined to give it up.
p. 58
Philosophical Papers (1979)