What are names?

Famous quotes containing the word names:

    Far from being antecedent principles that animate the process, law, language, truth are but abstract names for its results.
    William James (1842–1910)

    It was a poetic recreation to watch those distant sails steering for half-fabulous ports, whose very names are a mysterious music to our ears.... It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Our foreparents were mostly brought from West Africa.... We were brought to America and our foreparents were sold; white people bought them; white people changed their names ... my maiden name is supposed to be Townsend, but really, what is my maiden name? What is my name?
    Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977)