Quotes About Interpretation

The critical image... must not only fail to capture its referent, but show its failure.

That a viewer does not see what the artist intended does not make the composition a failure... In reality all artists speak first to themselves and then to an audience.

In my opinion, the greatest single failure of American education is that students come away unable to distinguish between a symbol and the thing the symbol stands for.

Abstraction is an exercise in a pre-assured failure. It is a futile attempt to communicate the non-communicable

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

You should approach Joyce's Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.

Religions are easy to invent. Most traditional religions have little or nothing to do with reality, are dependent on obfuscation, interpretation, guilt, and unreasoning faith.

To say that a thing is beautiful is simply an act of faith, not a measurement on some kind of scale.

Some like to understand what they believe in. Others like to believe in what they understand.

Truth is simply whatever you can bring yourself to believe.

One should never tie his faith to how old the earth is.

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.

When a scientist says he believes the Bible--that doesnt give me anymore more faith in the Bible that gives me more faith in the scientist.

It does require maturity to realize that models are to be used, but not to be believed.

No two persons think alike, even if they outwardly profess the same faith, so we have as many religions in Christianity as we have believers.

Lay not the plummet to the line; religion hath no landmarks; no human keenness can discern the subtle shades of faith.

As I've taught our congregation, within the Christian faith the question of homosexuality is not a question of biblical authority, but biblical interpretation.

Honestly, I think a good film is spiritual, regardless of whether its subject is faith.

Faith can take many different forms and expressions.

At Cornell, my acting teacher said you cannot be religious and be an artist. I sort of got it, because faith is a comfort and art comes from a lot of places, in a lot of people, from the dark chasm.

The relation of faith between subject and object is unique in every case. Hundreds may believe but each has to believe by himself.

I hate being sent mixed signals. I be having confused emotions...

The ability to quickly create a positive meaning to the events in our life is a great aid to being happy. Yet, this is the exact opposite of what our mind normally does. We normally create negative, disempowering meanings whenever things seemingly go wrong.

Positive attitude is the filter that shapes how we interpret and respond to people and circumstances. Attitudes are habits, and since we become our habits it's important to choose them wisely.