Quotes About Interpretation

What concerns me is not the way things are, but the way people think things are.

Man is troubled not by events, but by the meaning he gives to them.

What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgements about these things.

In literature, too, it is not great achievement to memorize what you have read while not formulating an opinion of your own.

When you are feeling upset, angry, or sad," Epictetus said, Ã¢â'¬Å"don't blame another for your state of mind. Your condition is the result of your own opinions and interpretations. . . .

It isn't death, pain, exile or anything else you care to mention that accounts for the way we act, only our opinion about death, pain and the rest.

Does anyone bathe hastily? Do not say that they do it ill, but hastily. Does anyone drink much wine? Do not say that they do ill, but that they drink a great deal. For unless you perfectly understand their motives, how should you know if they act ill? Thus you will not risk yielding to any appearances except those you fully comprehend.

Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them.

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.

People feel disturbed not by things, but by the views they take of them.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.

We don't need the victim's entrails for their own sake, only for the sake of the signs they convey. And we don't worship the crow or the raven -- we worship God who communicates by means of them.

But God has introduced man to be a spectator of God and of his works; and not only a spectator of them, but an interpreter. For this reason it is shameful for man to begin and to end where irrational animals do; but rather he ought to begin where they begin, and to end where nature ends in us; and nature ends in contemplation and understanding, and in a way of life conformable to nature. Take care then not to die without having been spectators of these things.

Cilv?ks necieš no notikumiem, bet gan no to interpret?cijas. (Epikt?ts, 50–135.g.)

People are not disturbed by things themselves, but by the views they take of those things.

Whenever distress or displeasure arises in your mind, remind yourself, "This is only my interpretation, not reality itself." Then ask whether it falls within or outside your sphere of power. And, if it is beyond your power to control, let it go.

It is not the events but our viewpoint toward events that is the determining factor. We ought to be more concerned about removing wrong thoughts from the mind than removing tumors and abscesses from the body.

If you want not just peace and contentment, but power and wealth too, you may forfeit the former in seeking the latter, and will lose your freedom and happiness along the way. Whenever distress or displeasure arises in your mind, remind yourself, "This is only my interpretation, not reality itself." Then ask whether it falls within or outside your sphere of power. And, if it is beyond your power to control, let it go.

the ability to make good use of impressions

We are disturbed not by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens.

Known as American exceptionalism, this interpretation casts the colonial period simply as an Anglophone preparation for the United States, defined as a uniquely middle-class society and democracy.

More history than ever is today being revised or invented by people who do not want the real past, but only a past that suits their purpose. Today is the great age of historical mythology. The defence of history by its professionals is today more urgent in politics than ever. We are needed.

Jesus was not a Christian, nor was Marx a Marxist.

There is thus an illiterate air about the most literate true believer. He seems to use words as if he were ignorant of their true meaning. Hence, too, his taste for quibbling, hair-splitting and scholastic tortuousness.