03.30. The Law of the Context of Quotations

The Law of the Context of Quotations NO ONE LIVES TO HIMSELF, neither does he die to himself. We are part of all we meet, according to Tennyson. Everything that comes in contact with us has a certain amount of influence upon us, even though it may be infinitesimally small. Environment is certainly one of the prime factors in determining the conduct and the life of each individual. From these general observations, we can see that the context, which is the "environment" of a sentence, must of necessity have a profound impression upon the thought of a given sentence. Just as, in order to understand a person, we must know his antecedents and his environment, so must we know that which lies back behind the thought and the environment or setting in which it is placed.