Quotes & Sayings About Definitions

Wit is educated insolence. — Aristotle.

I would add that I consider myself and how I do things as a kind of system which, by definition, I always follow. — Ed Seykota

My definition of a sport is that it's a physical activity that involves competition. Since bodybuilders certainly train and then compete, we are certainly a sport. — Arnold Schwarzenegger

The two sides of the equation are the same. We have a tautology. The definition is meaningless. — Norman Macbeth

There are alternate definitions of manhood in the West. — Frank Dobson

A plan is only a scenario, and almost by definition, it is optimistic ... As a result, scenario planning can lead to a serious underestimate of the risk of failure. — Daniel Kahneman

In some ways we want definitions that can help protect our own interpretations of the genre. — John D'Agata

There are two definitions of deflation. Most people think of it simply as prices going down. But debt deflation is what happens when people have to spend more and more of their income to carry the debts that they've run up - to pay their mortgage debt, to pay the credit card debt, to pay student loans. — Michael Hudson

Democracy has many definitions, but what's in it for me is not an element of any of them. — Jeff Cooper

On how to make boys like you:
the third way is to be come something called "hot"
Now Katie I would argue that there are at least two
distinct definitions
of hot. There is the like normal
human definition which is that individual seems
suitable for mating. And then theirs the weird culturally
constructed definition of hot which is that individual is
malnourished and has probably had plastic bags inserted
into her breasts. Now boys might find that hot now but I don't think there's anything inherently hot about it like if you went back to the 18th century and ask a fifteen year old boy would you like to marry a woman who has had plastic bags needlessly inserted into her breasts that fifteen year old boy would probably be like: "What's plastic? — John Green

Courage does not require rappelling across rocky cliffs but rather, day in and day out, overcoming our fears by stepping outside our personal comfort zone, following our intuition, and making ourselves available to the larger plan. It means we transcend our limited self-definitions to be open to new information and stretch beyond the way we've always done things in the past. It means we listen within and sometimes turn left when everyone else seems to be going right. It allows us to risk ridicule to create something new, or to risk rejection when we are being true to our sense of what's right. — Charlene Belitz

A lady is nothing very specific. One man's lady is another man's woman; sometimes, one man's lady is another man's wife. Definitions overlap but they almost never coincide. — Russell Lynes

By definition, the big difference between mercy and justice is that mercy is never ever obligatory. — R.C. Sproul

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza
Supporter: Someone who will say anything. — Idries Shah

the process of learning a theory depends upon the study of applications, including practice problem-solving both with a pencil and paper and with instruments in the laboratory. If, for example, the student of Newtonian dynamics ever discovers the meaning of terms like 'force,' 'mass,' 'space,' and 'time,' he does so less from the incomplete though sometimes helpful definitions in his text than by observing and participating in the application of these concepts to problem-solution. That — Thomas S. Kuhn

Since UFO stands for "unidentified flying object", the word ufology means approximately "knowledge about unknown flying objects", and is therefore a "science" whose content is void by definition. Similar considerations hold for parapsychology. — Lucio Russo

The definition of a Dark Age is that we no longer remember what we once could do. — Jerry Pournelle

Sexuality and love can be different things. I can be attracted to a woman sexually, but it doesn't mean I want to be in love with a woman. If I'm going to be with a woman sexually, it doesn't mean I'm a lesbian. We put these restraints and definitions on people, but it's hard to define. — Cameron Diaz

Recite to yourself some of the traditional attributes of the word 'spiritual': mythic, magical, ethereal, incorporeal, intangible, nonmaterial, disembodied, ideal, platonic. Is that not a definition of the electronic-digital? — Timothy Leary

We expect definitions to tell us not only what is, but what to do about it; to show us how the world fits together and how its different parts connect and work ... A label is the first step toward action. — Elizabeth Janeway

Definition of good neighbor: someone to be trusted; a courteous, friendly source of help when help is needed; someone you can count on; someone who cares. — Edward B. Rust Jr.

Other Definitions of Worry Anxiety is the great modern plague. But faith can cure it. — Smiley Blanton

My definition of economic development is economic growth. — Mark Noble

The definition of hell is a place where nothing connects with nothing. — T. S. Eliot

Sometimes it feels like I live in such a shit town. It meets all reasonable definitions of a shit town. There are still men who put on hats to drive on these roads, our only celebrities are sports stars and newsreaders, and everyone you meet already knows your mother. p.34 — Nick Earls

While theoretically a person may block God out, logically there will be a breakdown because ultimately all enunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind. And if that moral doctrine is not absolute then the definer himself becomes undefined. That's what we are living with - an undefined definer giving us definitions for our course, and we are being trapped in the quicksand of the absence of objective truth. — Ravi Zacharias

You know the definition of the perfectly designed machine ... The perfectly designed machine is one in which all its working parts wear out simultaneously. I am that machine. — Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell

What is this Love that so many speak of with such apparent familiarity? Do
they truly comprehend how unattainable it is? Are there not as many
definitions of Love as there are stars in the universe? — Brian Herbert

Today, I slept in until 10,
Cleaned every dish I own,
Fought with the bank,
Took care of paperwork.
You and I might have different definitions of adulthood.
I don't work for salary, I didn't graduate from college,
But I don't speak for others anymore,
And I don't regret anything I can't genuinely apologize for.
And my mother is proud of me.
I burnt down a house of depression,
I painted over murals of greyscale,
And it was hard to rewrite my life into one I wanted to live
But today, I want to live.
I didn't salivate over sharp knives,
Or envy the boy who tossed himself off the Brooklyn bridge.
I just cleaned my bathroom,
did the laundry,
called my brother.
Told him, "it was a good day. — Kait Rokowski

The only thing high-definition television will do is provide sharper images of the garbage. — George Carlin

What is a weed? I have heard it said that there are sixty definitions. For me, a weed is a plant out of place. — Donald C. Peattie

Those who do not believe do not pray. This is a good functional definition of faith. Faith prays, unbelief does not. — John Hardon

Play cannot be defined, because in play all definitions slither, dance, combine, break apart, and recombine. — Stephen Nachmanovitch

Science thus tends necessarily towards an ultimate state in which all knowledge is embodied in the definitions of the objects with which it is concerned; and in which all true statements about these objects are therefore analytical or tautological and could not be disproved by any experience. The observation that any object did not behave as it should could then only mean that it was not an object of the kind it was thought to be. — Friedrich A. Hayek

I don't remember you being this reasonable before, " Lissa said.
"It's because everyone has different definitions of 'reasonable. ' Mine's just misunderstood, that's all. " Christian's voice was lofty.
"I think you must be misunderstood a lot, " she laughed.
His eyes held hers, and the smile on his face transformed into something warmer and softer. "Well, I hope this isn't misunderstood. Otherwise, I might get punched. " Leaning over, he brought his lips to hers. Lissa responded with no hesitation or thought whatsoever, losing herself in the sweetness of the kiss. — Richelle Mead

If you look up the meaning of healing you can find many different definitions. There's the adjective, noun, and verb (with and without objects). For argument's sake we will use the verb. Still there are many definitions. The one that fits here is to free from evil; cleanse; purify; to heal the soul.
Free from evil, even if you didn't know it was there. — Mandi Lynn

Maybe there is something. Something deep. Something in border of physical and incomprehensible. Something unknowable.
Something completely beyond of all psychological, logical and scientific definitions about human. Something, for which the death is no irreversible limit.Something so strange and absurd.
Something infinite and eternal in Homo Sapiens. Never - dying fire.
The human spirit. — Alexandar Tomov

Since the photographic medium has been digitized, a fixed definition of the term photography has become impossible. — Andreas Gursky

A society in stable equilibrium is-by definition-one that has no history and wants no historians. — Henry Adams

No, everything is not going to be okay. It never is. It isn't okay now. Change, by definition, changes things — Seth Godin

One of my favorite definitions of enlightenment comes from a Jesuit priest named Anthony de Mello, who passed away some years ago. Someone asked him to define his experience of enlightenment. He said, "Enlightenment is absolute cooperation with the inevitable." I love that, because it defines enlightenment not just as a realization, but as an activity. Enlightenment is when everything within us is in cooperation with the flow of life itself, with the inevitable. — Adyashanti

There is no definition of a mental disorder. It's bullshit. I mean, you just can't define it. — Jon Rappoport

But he fails to realize that, by declining the opportunity to define himself, he allows others, less interested, more callous, meaner others, to create definitions for him. — Stephen Dau

If someone asks me what cloud computing is, I try not to get bogged down with definitions. I tell them that, simply put, cloud computing is a better way to run your business. — Marc Benioff

This, then, is the Anarchistic definition of government: the subjection of the non-invasive individual to an external will ... — Benjamin Tucker

Ultimately, the definition of bravery is not being afraid of yourself. — Chogyam Trungpa

The view is often defended that sciences should be built up on clear and sharply defined basal concepts. In actual fact no science, not even the most exact, begins with such definitions. The true beginning of scientific activity consists rather in describing phenomena and then in proceeding to group, classify and correlate them. — Sigmund Freud

The definition of definition is at bottom just what the maxim of pragmatism expresses. — Charles Sanders Peirce

Empathy cannot by definition oppress anyone. — Simon Baron-Cohen

The common moral framework: Do anything as long as it does no harm to others. Problem: Whose definition of harm? — Timothy Keller

The greater the scientist, the more he is impressed with his ignorance of reality, and the more he realizes that his laws and labels, descriptions and definitions, are the products of his own thought. They help him to use the world for purposes of his own devising rather than understand and explain it. — Alan Watts

Having all these lies so that you could feel special. It's time to let go of fantasy and imagined problems. It's time to embrace the crude and harsh truths.

That the existents, the discourses, the frameworks, your words, your meanings, and your definitions, all begin to fade, away, again — Camilo Garzon

Coincidence is a spiritual pun. — Gilbert K. Chesterton

With high definition TV, everything looks bigger and wider. Kind of like going to your 25th high school reunion. — Jay Leno

For me, there has never been one definition of beauty. I think we all have something to offer and when beauty shines from within, there can be no denying it — Alek Wek

The next level, by definition, is something you can't see and you can't understand ... — Eben Pagan

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza
Penitent: Someone who has been made incapable of enjoying himself. — Idries Shah

You cannot be who and what you are unless you have a lifestyle, both internally and externally, that is designed to support that definition of self. — Phil McGraw

One right and honest definition of business is mutual helpfulness. — William Feather

The world out there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity; it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. — Leonard Ravenhill

Every day I strive to get to a place where I'm not effected by the external world, and I don't use the external world to define or tell me who I am. I strive for a state of equanimity and calm and a state of grace, so I can be free of definitions. If you are free, then you can create beautiful things. It's really just shutting out the noise. — Laurel Holloman

I do not want to presuppose anything as known. I see in my explanation in section 1 the definition of the concepts point, straight line and plane, if one adds to these all the axioms of groups i-v as characteristics. If one is looking for other definitions of point, perhaps by means of paraphrase in terms of extensionless, etc., then, of course, I would most decidedly have to oppose such an enterprise. One is then looking for something that can never be found, for there is nothing there, and everything gets lost, becomes confused and vague, and degenerates into a game of hide and seek. — David Hilbert

The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. For all the definitions, descriptions, and characterizations of leaders, there are only two that matter: effective and ineffective. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not. — Jocko Willink

The Silvertop and the Goldtop both had subtlety where it was needed but lots of definition as well. I liked the different voicings of the distortion/fuzz elements. — Dweezil Zappa

The definition of swiftboating is: producing irrefutable evidence that a Democrat is lying. — Ann Coulter

High definition ruined a lot of things that I used to hold sacrosanct in pornography. — Doug Stanhope

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza
Wisdom: Something you can learn without knowing it. — Idries Shah

Mathematics is entirely free in its development, and its concepts are only linked by the necessity of being consistent, and are co-ordinated with concepts introduced previously by means of precise definitions. — Georg Cantor

In other words, Cantor is able to show that real numbers themselves can serve as the limits of fundamental sequences of reals, meaning his system of definitions is self-enclosed and VIR-proof. — David Foster Wallace

Some things cannot be explained. This is part of the magic of life. There cannot be a word or an idea or a definition attached to everything. — Jim James

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. — H.L. Mencken

The definitions of humanism are many, but let us here take it to be the attitude of those men who think it an advantage to live in society, and, at that, in a complex and highly developed society, and who believe that man fulfills his nature and reaches his proper stature in this circumstance. The personal virtues which humanism cherishes are intelligence, amenity, and tolerance; the particular courage it asks for is that which is exercised in the support of these virtues. The qualities of intelligence which it chiefly prizes are modulation and flexibility. — Lionel Trilling

Some artists are told what to like and told definitions of what the music business is. That's a problem. Music is artistry, and you want your music heard, your act known. But artists don't know. They are ignorant the minute they sign a contract. — Chuck D

A fractal is a mathematical set or concrete object that is irregular or fragmented at all scales. — Benoit Mandelbrot

The definition of a philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black hat, which isn't really there. And the definition of a theologian is he's somebody who finds it. — Michael Ruse

A milestone is less date and more definition. — Rands

What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of judgment, nothing of resounding through eternity and nothing of the footsteps of the Almighty. — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

I have a personal definition of cartooning, which is, simply, "imaginative drawing." Anything you're drawing that is not in front of you but is a mental construct that you want to express in a drawing is, to me, a cartoon. — Jim Woodring

To be fixated on Sahaja Samadhi is to be fixated. To be fixated on the idea of being not fixated is fixation too. All these ideas and definitions about enlightenment become silly. — Frederick Lenz

An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid. — Carl Sagan

After realising my natural affinity towards surrealism several years ago I decided to study it's origins and definitions. — Trevor Dunn

With each change of definition in art, something considered non-art or bad art by a previous generation is suddenly acceptable. — Thomas Hoving

Definitions belong to the definer, not the defined, & I no longer wished to have my life & death foretold by others. I had endured too much to be reduced to an idea. Onto that pyre I threw so many, many words - that entire untrue literature of the past which had shackled & subjugated my as surely as the spiked iron collars & leg locks & jagged basils & balls & chains & headshaving - that had so long denied me my free voice & the stories I needed to tell. I no longer wished to read lies as to who & why I was. I knew who I was — Richard Flanagan

Sometimes people pick up pet worries that they'll entertain themselves with and that was my big one. So as far as thinking about what that means, one of the definitions of insanity is that you lose your ability to communicate to anybody because your frames of reference have become so different from the rest of the world that you can't communicate anymore. — Brad Warner

My son, who's on the spectrum is a very rigid thinker. He needs clear-cut definitions of right and wrong. Anything hazy or gray confuses him. For instance, if I try to get him to see that a friend behaved badly, he'll often get upset with me because a friend is a 'good guy' by definition, in his book. — Claire Scovell LaZebnik

Misunderstanding may arise by confusing the Buddhist and scientific definitions of death. Within the scientific system you spoke quite validly of the death of the brain and the death of heart. Different parts of the body can die separately. However, in the Buddhist system, the word death is not used in that way. You'd never speak of the death of a particular part of the body, but rather of the death of an entire person. When people say that a certain person died, we don't ask, "Well, which part died?" — Dalai Lama

My definition of success is not having things thrown at me! — Orson Welles

The concentrating of powers in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. — Thomas Jefferson

One way to see the constructed nature of reality is to notice how the definitions of different "races" change historically, by including groups at one time that were excluded in another. The Irish, for example, were long considered by the dominant white Anglo-Saxon Protestants of England and the United States to be members of a nonwhite "race", as were Italians, Jews, and people from a number of Eastern European countries. As such, immigrants from these groups to England and the United States were excluded and subjugated and exploited in much the same way that blacks were. — Allan G. Johnson

For the person who is grounded in the timeless truth of the universe, there is no life and no death. He or she can experience eternal joy without being limited by the definitions of good and evil. The essence of Oneness always exists within us. — Ilchi Lee

My fullest concentration of energy is available to me only when I integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without the restriction of externally imposed definition. — Audre Lorde

Every one has experienced how learning an appropriate name for what was dim and vague cleared up and crystallized the whole matter. Some meaning seems distinct almost within reach, but is elusive; it refuses to condense into definite form; the attaching of a word somehow (just how, it is almost impossible to say) puts limits around the meaning, draws it out from the void, makes it stand out as an entity on its own account. — John Dewey

Two more [birds added to her cage]. I call them the Wards in Jarndyce. They are caged up with all the others. With Hope, Joy, Youth, Peace, Rest, Life, Dust, Ashes, Waste, Want, Ruin, Despair, Madness, Death, Cunning, Folly, Words, Wigs, Rags, Sheepskin, Plunder, Precedent, Jargon, Gammon, and Spinach!? - - - Miss Flite to Esther. [I thought a the last two a bit strange until I looked and saw the old definitions of gammon (as being double talk or obfuscation) and spinach (as being a spurious and unwanted growth). How appropriately summarized the situation! — Charles Dickens

I'm not sure I'll ever be famous by anyone's definition. I can only hope to be allowed by the audience to continue my life's work. — Brandi Carlile

Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him: It is that part of the world which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life. — Arthur Schopenhauer

Change can only exist in time. Without time there is no change. Change can only exist with a background of that which is changeless, otherwise it has no definition. — Frederick Lenz

Mankind is a science that defies definitions. — Robert Burns

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza
Drugs: Source of the mystical experience of the ignorant. — Idries Shah

IT'S a pitfall to have a definition of photography, — Jeff Wall

The high-definition picture is still a perspective picture. That's the real problem, the perspective picture. — David Hockney