Quotes About Interpretation

ce qui frappe l'esprit capricieux du poète n'est pas toujours ce qui impressionne la masse des lecteurs.

One sees that history is an art gallery where there are few originals and many copies.

Nothing could be more obscure and out of reach of the common man than a law founded on precedent....A French lawyer is just a man of learning, but an English or an American one is somewhat like the Egyptian priests, being, as they were, the only interpreters of an occult science.

this difference lies in the simple fact that the Americans have acknowledged the right of the judges to found their decisions on the constitution rather than on the laws.

The French lawyer is simply a man extensively acquainted with the statutes of his country; but the English or American lawyer resembles the hierophants of Egypt, for, like them, he is the sole interpreter of an occult science.

Meanings are not determined by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meanings we give to situations.

We must interpret a bad temper as a sign of inferiority.

One epoch's popular culture is another's esoterica.

Oh, I have a habit of letting myself be lectured on the things I know best. I like to see if they are understood in the same way I understand; for there are many ways of knowing the same thing

I never said actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle.

Vale más partir del cliché que llegar a él.

The map is not the territory.

If words are not things, or maps are not the actual territory, then, obviously, the only possible link between the objective world and the linguistic world is found in structure, and structure alone.

A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.

Whatever we may say will not be the objective level, which remains fundamentally un-speakable. Thus, we can sit on the object called 'a chair', but we cannot sit on the noise we made or the name we applied to that object.

Moreover, every language having a structure, by the very nature of language, reflects in its own structure that of the world as assumed by those who evolve the language. In other words, we read unconsciously into the world the structure of the language we use.

Definitions create conditions.

Art makes nothing happen in a way that makes something happen.

We do treat books surprisingly lightly in contemporary culture. We'd never expect to understand a piece of music on one listen, but we tend to believe we've read a book after reading it just once.

That is the joy of reading fiction: when all is said and done, the novel belongs to the reader and his or her imagination.

You can never tell about a person by guessing...that's why language was invented. Otherwise, we'd all be like dogs, sniffing each other to find out where we stood.

What did you see?' he asked then. Nothing,' I told him. 'Because nothing is what you wanted me to see, though the man on the table might disagree.

A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.

History is personal, Gwen understands that now. All you are seeing is what's before you, the rest is guesswork.