Definition

(106 votes)   It is the business of thought to define things, to find the boundaries; thought, indeed, is a ceaseless process of definition. It is the business of Art to give things shape. Anyone who takes no delight in the firm outline of an object, or in its essential character, has no artistic sense. He cannot even be nourished by Art. Like Ephraim, he feeds upon the East wind, which has no boundaries.

Vance Palmer
1885-1959, Australian Author, Poet

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(126 votes)   By speaking, by thinking, we undertake to clarify things, and that forces us to exacerbate them, dislocate them, schematize them. Every concept is in itself an exaggeration.

Jose Ortega Y Gasset
1883-1955, Spanish Essayist, Philosopher

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(125 votes)   The human mind is so complex and things are so tangled up with each other that, to explain a blade of straw, one would have to take to pieces an entire universe. A definition is a sack of flour compressed into a thimble.

Remy De Gourmont
1858-1915, French Novelist, Philosopher, Poet, Playwright

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website