Formal Singular

Famous quotes containing the words formal and/or singular:

    I will not let him stir
    Till I have used the approvèd means I have,
    With wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers,
    To make of him a formal man again.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    English general and singular terms, identity, quantification, and the whole bag of ontological tricks may be correlated with elements of the native language in any of various mutually incompatible ways, each compatible with all possible linguistic data, and none preferable to another save as favored by a rationalization of the native language that is simple and natural to us.
    Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)