Quote by John Stuart Mill
The tendency has always been strong to believe that whatever received a name must be an entity or being, having an independent existence of its own. And if no real entity answering to the name could be found, men did not for that reason suppose that none existed, but imagined that it was something peculiarly abstruse and mysterious.
Summary
This quote suggests that humans have a natural inclination to perceive anything that has a name as a separate and independent entity. Even when there is no actual evidence of the existence of such an entity, people often assume that it is just something incredibly complex or unknowable. It highlights how our tendency to give names to things trickles into attributing them with a sense of independent existence, blurring the line between reality and perception.