Richard Hamming (1915–1998) American mathematician and information theorist
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)
“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.
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Bill Clinton99
42nd President of the United States 1946Related quotes
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Lois McMaster Bujold (1949) Science Fiction and fantasy author from the USA
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Context: Reading is an active and elusive experience. Every reader, reading exactly the same text, will have a slightly different reading experience depending on what s/he projects into the words s/he sees, what strings of meaning and association those words call up in his/her (always) private mind. One can never therefore, talk about the quality of a book separately from the quality of the mind that is creating it by reading it, in the only place books live, in the secret mind.
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“Whatever the word "great" means, Dickens was what it means.”
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“Do you know what humanity is, what the word "human" means? The word human”
Barry Long (1926–2003) Australian spiritual teacher and writer
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.
“Words never mean what we want them to mean.”
Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated
Source: Everything Is Illuminated (2002)
“Whether we believe in God depends very much on what we mean by God.”
Carl Sagan book Broca's Brain
Source: Broca's Brain (1979), Chapter 23, “A Sunday Sermon” (p. 330)