Quotes About Meaning

The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.

The work is the death mask of its conception.

All purposeful manifestations of life, including their very purposiveness, in the final analysis have their end not in life but in the expression of its nature, in the representation of its significance.

Life is revealed as a place to contribute and we as contributors. Not because we have done a measurable amount of good, but because that is the story we tell.

He had realized that the labels he had been taking so seriously are human inventions--it's all a game. The Number 68 is invented and the A is invented, so we might as well choose to invent something that brightens our life and the lives of the people around us.

My life seemed to be a series of events and accidents. Yet when I look back I see a pattern.

Since algebra derives from the Arabic jabara = to bind together, fractal and algebra are etymological opposites!)

I am not a depressive person at all, but I reflect a lot on my life, and life in general, from the perspective of death.

A name is so important in biblical settings that Scripture frequently mentions God Himself changing someone's name to reflect a new reality. Abram, which means 'exalted father,' was changed to Abraham, meaning 'father of a multitude.'

I appear to be drawn to iconic characters and what they reflect back to our cultures.

It's nice to be able to go back and reflect and see how much my dad meant to people.

But if you're doing something and you don't know why you're doing it, then it's good to reflect on the intentionality behind it.

I try to be an ethical, moral person and a nice person, and I like to have that reflected in my comedy. I'm not a mean comedian, and I don't think that my comedy is mean. I think that for the most part, it's more focused on the diversity that we all handle and try to provide a distraction from the disaster of modern living.

Writers want to be reread. They want to think that their words don't just flash by but deserve some reflection.

Most people appear to live an unexamined life, cruising through the years without much reflection about what it means, and/or taking what life hands them and believing it's all predestined.

One of the questions that has most bothered me in my reflections on culture is the question of kitsch. Just what is it? When did it begin? And why?

The Christmas season can mean different things to different people, but for me, it's a time of hope, giving and reflection.

How can anybody learn anything from an artwork when the piece of art only reflects the vanity of the artist and not reality?

I'm very interested in language because it reflects our obsessions and ways of conceptualising the world.

I heard someone in opposition to reform last night criticize the president for saying it's their money. They said it's not their money; it's my mother's money. Well that's what's wrong with the system.

I've learned that even the word 'jubilee' used in connection with the Reformation can give rise to discussions.

There is no quick fix for illegal immigration. But only when we achieve better control of our borders and better respect for our immigration laws can we give meaning to the discussion we need to have over reforming the numbers, categories, and procedures for legal immigration into the United States.

I've been fascinated over the years by the way refrains work. Think, say, of the refrains in Yeats' ballads. Ideally, each time the refrain comes back in a poem, it is both the same and different. It works by counterpoint and reiteration. It accrues meaning.

Whatever things may have been in their origin, they are what they are, both in themselves and in regard to their indications respecting other beings or influences the existence of which may be implied in theirs.