Quotes About Interpretation

Biblical literalism is for the simple.

We rejoiced in the idea that reality was not an absolute but a choice, something we select to fit our own conception not of the world but of ourselves. We are Christians, therefore all world events have a Christian explanation. We hate George Bush, therefore Bush is the cause of it all. And

were used (or misused) is the difference between

For poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion.

We should conceive of poetry worthily, and more highly than it has been the custom to conceive of it. We should conceive of it as capable of higher uses, and called to higher destinies, than those which in general men have assigned to it hitherto. More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us.

People know that they're going to see something which is entertaining but challenging as well because of the form it's in. It's dance theatre and it requires you to use your imagination - it's not straight forward.

I'm very conscious that I want the dance audience to respond and respect what I'm doing, so I'm always very true to the music and I honour the music in the way I see it - I don't mess around with the music.

According to St. Paul women are not allowed to be public teachers in the church."

Guilty consciences are apt to take good providences in a bad sense

Eighth Doctor: I love humans. Always seeing patterns in things that aren't there.

One man's trash is another man's treasure. And that is true not only of things but also of experiences and problems.

I didn't want to open up to the kind of pastor who believed that, while I told him my story, God was secretly and inerrantly revealing the rest of my story to him. I've had pastors make assumptions about me before. I'd tell them a story or two, and they filled in the blanks with their own theories and conclusions about the condition of my soul.

Imagine! It is the real power of a book--not what is on the page, but what happens when a reader takes the pages in, makes it part of himself. That is the definition of literature.

An obscure character by the name of Belial. He is interpreted as a minion of the devil by some scholars, but that is wrong. It is ignorance. The name means, literally speaking, 'one who cannot be yoked,' and it is really every one of us who takes control of our own destiny while others blow in the wind. We may be punished for it, but we would never do it another way. We are all Belials.

I do not purpose to discuss faith in its dogmatic sense today.

Love is always partly a misunderstanding';

Images, similars, signs, correspondences, and coincidences infer a different way to look at the world; they give rise to a different kind of knowledge.

By happiness I mean here a deep sense of flourishing that arises from an exceptionally healthy mind. This is not a mere pleasurable feeling, a fleeting emotion, or a mood, but an optimal state of being. Happiness is also a way of interpreting the world, since while it may be difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way we look at it.

change, even a tiny one, in the way we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world can significantly change our existence

By happiness I mean here a deep sense of flourishing that arises from an exceptionally healthy mind. This is not a mere pleasurable feeling, a fleeting emotion, or a mood, but an optimal state of being. Happiness is also a way of interpreting the world, since while it may be difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way we look at it. A

Isak Dinesen wrote, "There is no mystery in art. Do the things you can see, they will show you what you cannot see." In other words, there is mystery in art, but one of the ways it is conjured occurs when an author lavishes narrative attention on the visible.

It is so difficult to endow our words with meaning, to talk sense to each other.

One person's crazy is another person's sane, I guess.

She was standing in the airport of Copenhagen, staring at a doorway, trying to figure out if it was (a) a bathroom and (b) what kind of bathroom it was. The door merely said H. Was she an H? Was H "hers"? It could just as easily be "his". Or "Helicopter Room: Not a Bathroom at All