Quotes About Meaning

only too frequently, our metaphors are not our own.

Thus, one might say, the dream can never be read literally, because its very substance is metaphor...

metaphor have something in common with, for example, the paintings of M.C.Esher, or the Rorshach blot, both of which are famously indecipherable or, at least, irreducible to a single interpretation: they can never fully reveal their own meanings because they are perennially on the point of turning into their other.

metaphors themselves are time-bound and ideologically motivated.

The metaphor can be considered in some sense and under some circumstances to be a kind of sleight of hand by means of which meanings can be surreptitiously smuggled into an apparently innocent discourse.

A metaphor then, we might reasonably surmise, is not necessarily a matter of simple one-to-one equivalences ('this stands for that'), but neither is it a process of ornamentation of something that could have been more clearly said in another, simpler way; rather, in this case at least […] it is the very substance of the discourse.

A common error about metaphor is to suppose that it can be in some sense 'unpacked'. When that unpacking takes place, what is left is rarely of any value; it seems a paltry and colourless thing when compared to the metaphor itself.

Does metaphor mean something more than, or different form, or in some sense beneath, what it appears to say; or is the meaning of a metaphor precisely what it does say.

the epistatic fucking cirque du soleil of this virus is discombobulating.

Idleness and idolatry aren't related but they ought to be.

number of years a person lives has nothing to do with whether or not they've lived a full life. Eighty years is a lot of years, I guess, when compared to twenty years. But just because a person has lived a lot of years doesn't mean they've lived a full life.

Our problem today is that we no longer believe in things but in symbols, hence our life has passed over into these symbols and their manipulation— only to find ourselves manipulated by the symbols we take so seriously, objectified in our objectifications.

Viradecthis is an obscure (possibly Germanic) goddess, the meaning of whose name is uncertain. The name may be derived from the words wiro meaning "truth" and dekos meaning "honour", giving a possible meaning of something like "She who honours truth". An inscription to her was found at Birrens set up by the Condrusi, a Germanic tribe serving in the Roman army.[605]

Words that are not backed up by life lose their weight," Havel wrote, "which means that words can be silenced in two ways: either you ascribe such weight to them that no one dares utter them aloud, or you take away any weight they might have, and they turn into air. The final effect in each case is silence: the silence of the half-mad man who is constantly writing appeals to world authorities while everyone ignores him; and the silence of the Orwellian citizen.

Most of the major events of human history gradually lose their meaning: wars that seemed at the time all

The name Wisconsin is believed by some to be a derivation of the word Wishkonsing, place of the beaver.)

listen for the intention of what people say and ignore the words.

This is the true joy in life: being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish, little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. —GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

There's a famous finding in the psychological literature," Ochsner explains, "showing that six months later, someone who has become a paraplegic is just as happy as someone who's won the lottery. It seems clear people are doing something to find what's positive in even the most dire of circumstances. The one thing you can always do is control your interpretation of the meaning of the situation

I am convinced that material things can contribute a lot to making one's life pleasant, but, basically, if you do not have very good friends and relatives who matter to you, life will be really empty and sad and material things cease to be important.

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Philosophy is wondering if that means ketchup is a smoothie.

even a pawn must not be sacrificed to no purpose.

You may find it interesting that the word Solomon is comprised of three smaller words—the Latin 'sol,' the Hindu 'om,' and the Egyptian 'on'—all of which mean sun in their respective language.

without immortality all would be sham and sport of the most tragic nature.