Quotes About Meaning

That's what meaning is—a special additive like salt or garlic that could make even the most fetid piece of meat seem palpable, even delicious.

But that isn't all!" Caris broke in, distressed at the sadness in the old man's voice. "There is more in the world than—than money in the pockets of the merchants and machines to make things to sell! Isn't there?

How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them.

I've about decided that's the main thing that separates happy people from the other people: the feeling that you're a practical item, with a use, like a sweater or a socket wrench.

If you ask me, when something extraordinary shows up in your life in the middle of the night, you give it a name and make it the best home you can.

To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know.

we sang in church Tata Nzolo ! Which means Father in Heaven or Father of Fish Bait depending on just how you sing it, and that pretty well summed up my quandry.

Isn't it awfully sad to thing that's all history amounts to, just following the next stupid fashion?

It was a true conversation. About whether our ancestors had more important lives than we do. And how they've managed to trick us, if they did not.

Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.

Prayer had always struck me as more or less a glorified attempt at a business transaction.

and do not for the love of the Lord say you're laying down if you mean lying down.

Even a joke has some weight and takes up space, and when introduced into a vacuum, acquires its own gravity.

I've about decided that's the main thing that separates happy people from the other people: the feeling that you're a practical item, with a use, like a sweater or a socket wrench.

Bangala means something precious and dear. But the way he pronounces it, it means the poisonwood tree.

I read what Hallie said about not wanting to save the world, that you didn't choose your road for the reward at the end, but for the way it felt as you went along.

In cio', ci allineiamo, non si sa quanto consapevoli, a un'idea di fondo, squisitamente barbara, che in teoria non condividiamo, ma in realta' pratichiamo senza nessuna difficolta': il senso delle cose non alberga in un loro tratto originario e autentico, ma nella traccia che da esse sprigiona quando entrano in connessione con altri pezzi di mondo.

Karate moved slowly through the lobby. His gaze went to Belghazi and his eyes hardened in a way that would mean nothing to most people but that meant a great deal to me. From this gaze I understood Karate wasn't looking at a man. No. What I saw instead was a hunter acquiring a target.

but the truth was, his apology meant nothing to her. In her mind, behavior was the truth, not words.

In the scope of the universe, and the arc of justice, my life is of little consequence.

Reloader was a term he'd picked up from Dox. It meant someone so formidable you'd empty the whole magazine into him, eject, reload, and empty the second magazine, too, just to be sure.

there are no crows in the desert. What appear to be crows are ravens. You must examine the crow, however, before you can understand the raven. To forget the crow completely, as some have tried to do, would be like trying to understand the one who stayed without talking to the one who left. It is important to make note of who has left the desert.

We, all of us, look back over our lives, trying to make sense of what happened, to see what enduring threads might be there.

Art's underlying strength is that it does not intend to be literal. It presents a metaphor and leaves the viewer or listener to interpret. It is giving in to art, not trying to divine its meaning, that brings the viewer or listener the deepest measures of satisfaction.