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Classification Quotes

The trouble with sorting things into boxes.

These lines wrestle with classification as both a practical tool and a fraught exercise - the FDA sorting drugs as nonprescription, and an older argument that dividing states into rigid categories is 'purely imaginary.' Each treats naming and sorting as an Act with real consequences.

The proposition of an established classification of states as slave states and free states, as insisted on by some, and into northern and southern, as maintained by others, seems to me purely imaginary, and of course the supposed equilibrium of...

Quotes by William H. Seward

It seems we will continue to have problems with this classification and it may be because it comes under the heading of creation rather than preservation.

Quotes by Walter Lang

The system of racial classification is fiction, and we need to thoughtfully evaluate whether perpetuating it rigidly or allowing fluidity across the spectrum best supports human rights and social justice.

Quotes by Rachel Dolezal

The public properly relies upon FDA classification of drugs as nonprescription as a reflection of the agency's judgment regarding the safety and proper use of a drug without a doctor's prescription.

Quotes by Loretta Lynch

Act Quotes

For no continuity of social act is possible without a corresponding social status and the many different kinds of act required in an industrial state, with its high degree of specialization, make for corresponding classification of status.

Quotes by Kenneth Burke

In teaching, I wanted to offer a general pharmacology course based on chemical principles, biochemical classification and mathematical modelling. In the event I achieved neither of my ambitions.

Quotes by James Black

Unless one is a religious fundamentalist and believes that man was created in the image and likeness of God, it is foolish to believe that human beings are exempt from biological classification and the laws of evolution that apply to...

Quotes by J. Philippe Rushton

Perhaps as good a classification as any of the main types is that of the three lusts distinguished by traditional Christianity - the lust of knowledge, the lust of sensation, and the lust of power.

Quotes by Irving Babbitt

The higher the classification of secrecy, the quicker you will report it.

Quotes by George P. Shultz

Always Quotes

Science is the systematic classification of experience.

Quotes by George Henry Lewes

In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights.

Quotes by Desmond Tutu

I was part of the draft resistance movement in L.A. where we did demonstrations at the draft centre and burned our cards and made a lot of trouble on campus. I had a student classification and they said that anybody...

Quotes by Cheech Marin

To be beyond any existing classification has always pleased me.

Quotes by Boyd Rice

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this Classification quotes page about?
It gathers quotes on how things get sorted into categories - a recurring problem across law, science, and social structures where the act of classifying carries real consequences.
Why do people look up quotes on classification specifically?
Classification quotes tend to appeal to readers thinking about how systems, institutions, or people get labeled, and how those labels shape treatment - a more analytical search than most quote topics.
Is there a regulatory example among these quotes?
Yes - one quote discusses how the public relies on the FDA's decision to mark a drug as safe to sell without a prescription, treating that classification as a signal of safety judgment people trust without necessarily verifying themselves.
Does the page touch on historical classification debates too?
It does - one quote references the old, contested proposal to classify states as slave or free, northern or southern, calling that kind of rigid division 'purely imaginary' rather than a natural fact.
What can I read next on related themes?
For more on how deliberate choices function as an Act with consequences, or browse Believe quotes for how conviction shapes the categories people accept.

For the social side of how categories get assigned, see Any quotes, or browse Believe quotes on how conviction shapes the labels we choose.