Quotes about Classification

Any grading system is meaningless.  Every attempt to compare cultures with the intention of determining which is the most developed will never be anything other than one more bullshit projection of Western culture's hatred of its own shadows.  There is one way to understand another culture.  Living it.  Move into it, ask to be tolerated as a guest, learn the language.  At some point understanding may come.  It will always be wordless.  The moment you grasp what is foreign, you will lose the urge to explain it.  To explain a phenomenon is to distance yourself from it.

'What's the use of their having names the Gnat said, 'if they won't answer to them?'
'No use to them,' said Alice; 'but it's useful to the people who name them, I suppose.  If not, why do things have names at all?'
'I can't say,' the Gnat replied.