Quotes About Meaning

What if most fiction is, at best, moderately important? What if it is so vague and culturally drivel-some, and so mediated by everything else once the culture industry extrudes it through a writer-shaped nozzle, that our stern declarations about subversive literature are, mostly, kind of adorable?

Tutte le note erano come a strati, un palinsesto di interpretazione in progresso. Feci archeologia.

No existe nada igual en ningún sitio -dijo -. En ningún sitio. No se trata de los sonidos. No es en los sonidos donde vive el significado.

The manager of my line told me, You never put anything down except to be read. Every word ever written is written to be read and if some go unread that's only chance, failure, they're like grubs that die without changing.

Can living artwork die? Can it live before it dies?

The thing is," Deeba said, eyeing Mr. Speaker, "you could only make words do what you want if it was just you deciding what they mean. But it isn't. It's everyone else, too. Which means you might want to give them orders, but you aren't in control. No one is.

It's a chain of whispers," he said. He leaned in and spoke quietly, ensuring that our conversation was private. "When they tell you that I came from the world of the dead, you're at the end of a chain of whispers. Each link has an imperfect join with those around it, and meaning leaches out between them." If

What sort of people are they, to act thus?' Yedigei asked aloud; he was deeply upset. 'Everything on earth is important to them, except death.' Yet this thought gave him no peace. 'If death is nothing to them, then it follows that life also has no value for them. What is their purpose in life? For what and how do they live?

For what purpose had all this been? In order that he could fade away in old age, like the glimmer of flame under the grey ashes?

When you say three things, you say nothing.

Statistics are rarely meaningful in and of themselves. Statistics will, and should, almost always be used to illustrate a relationship. It's more important for people to remember the relationship than the number.

What would you do if you knew you would not live until 40?

To spark moments of connection for groups, we must create shared meaning. That can be accomplished by three strategies: (1) creating a synchronized moment; (2) inviting shared struggle; and (3) connecting to meaning.

punch line: The most basic way to make people care is to form an association between something they don't yet care about and something they do care about.

Sportsmanship" had been stretched too far. Like "relativity," it had migrated far afield from its original meaning. It used to refer to the kind of behavior that Lance Armstrong showed Jan Ullrich. But over time the term was stretched to include unimpressive, nonchivalrous behavior, like losing without whining too much or making it through an entire game without assaulting a referee.

to defy the forgettable flatness of everyday work and life by creating a few precious moments.

people don't buy quarter-inch drill bits. They buy quarter-inch holes so they can hang their children's pictures.

To be surprising, an event's can't be predictable. Surprise is the opposite of predictability. But, to be satisfying, surprise must be "post-dictable.

Passion is individualistic. It can energize us but also isolate us, because my passion isn't yours. By contrast, purpose is something people can share. It can knit groups together.

Statistics aren't inherently helpful; it's the scale and context that make them so.

That's a moment of shared meaning. It instills not the pride of individual accomplishment, but the profound sense of connection that comes from subordinating ourselves to a greater mission. After the All-Staff Assembly

tap more profound motivations.

Be simple. Not simple in terms of "dumbing down" or "sound bites." You don't have to speak in monosyllables to be simple. What we mean by "simple" is finding the core of the idea.

What tires out the Rider—and puts change efforts at risk—is ambiguity