Quotes About Ambiguity

When we must deal with problems, we instinctively refuse to try the way that leads through darkness and obscurity. We wish to hear only of unequivocal results, and completely forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the darkness.

They sometimes behave like the Delphic oracle that told King Croesus that if he crossed the Halys River he would destroy a large kingdom. It was only after he had been completely defeated in battle after the crossing that he discovered that the kingdom meant by the oracle was his own.

What we call a symbol is a term, a name, or even a picture that may be familiar in daily life, yet that possesses specific connotations in addition to its conventional and obvious meaning. It implies something vague, unknown, or hidden from us.

It seems like the good guys turned out to be the bad guys, and the bad guys weren't all that bad.

her head and her face was in shadow. She'd pushed

Dakota shrugged. "I don't know what the hell is going on, but something is. You look ahead of us at all those people on horses in this setting, and you think, what a perfect thing. But what you don't know is what's going on in everyone's head, and what they might be thinking about everyone else. "That," she said, "is the reason I prefer horses.

No truth can be determined that concerns the future.

Eu não quero que seja pra sempre, nem que seja certo. Só quero que seja.

Que não suspeitará da tua perdição mergulhado como agora, a teu lado, na contemplação dessa paisagem interna onde não sabes sequer que lugar ocupas, e nem mesmo se estás nela.

Quando eu olhar a noite enorme do Equador, pensarei se tudo isso foi um encontro ou uma despedida.

Você não grita nem acorda. Não há terror, mesmo sendo aterrorizante: é assim que é. E pior ainda, não se trata de um sonho. Começa a amanhecer. Ou a anoitecer. Ninguém sabe quando passa o trem. Nem para onde vai. E não se leva nada. Isso é tudo que sabemos.

Knowledge work exchanges this clarity for ambiguity. It can be hard to define exactly what a given knowledge worker does and how it differs from another

Craftsmen like Furrer tackle professional challenges that are simple to define but difficult to execute—a useful imbalance when seeking purpose. Knowledge work exchanges this clarity for ambiguity. It can be hard to define exactly what a given knowledge worker does and how it differs from another: On our worst days, it can seem that all knowledge work boils down to the same exhausting roil of e-mails and PowerPoint,

It's just that we don't know what that passion is. If you ask someone, they'll tell you what they think they're passionate about, but they probably have it wrong." In other words, she believes that having passion for your work is vital, but she also believes that it's a fool's errand to try to figure out in advance what work will lead to this passion.

tactic that works well for me is to be clear in my refusal but ambiguous in my explanation for the refusal. The key is to avoid providing enough specificity about the excuse that the requester has the opportunity to defuse it.

Turning her attention to the workplace, Turkle finds young employees who retreat to email because the thought of an unstructured conversation terrifies them, and unnecessary office tensions that fester when communication shifts from nuanced conversation to ambiguous connection.

We revel in men like Beecham, Moore—they are the easy repositories of all that is dark in our very social world. But the things that helped make Beecham what he was? Those, we tolerate. Those, we even enjoy…

marks Marcus had originally thought to be left by pitons at that site were therefore made by something else, probably something altogether unconnected to our case).

Everything is true in some sense, false in some sense, and meaningless in another sense.

A sound that was both less and more than it had ever been before.

A position I couldn't help but notice was ambiguous at best.

We cannot assume that the things we want today will make sense for us tomorrow.

She is certain[ly] very clever, in a doubtful sense of the word.

He had no idea where he was, but, he thought with a small twinge of consolation, neither did anyone else.