Full Idea
Necessity resides in the way in which we say things, and not in the things we talk about.
Gist of Idea
Necessity is in the way in which we say things, and not things themselves
Source
Willard Quine (Three Grades of Modal Involvement [1953], p.176)
Book Reference
Quine,Willard: 'Ways of Paradox and other essays' [Harvard 1976], p.176
A Reaction
This is a culminating idea of Quine's thoroughgoing empiricism, as filtered through logical positivism. I would hardly dare to accuse Quine of a use/mention confusion (his own bête noir), but one seems to me to be lurking here.