Quotes About Interpretation

A Talmudic maxim instructs with respect to the Scripture: "Turn it over, and turn it over, for all is therein.

I think there is writing genius as well—which consists primarily, I think, of the ability to place oneself in the shoes of one's audience; to assume only what they assume; to anticipate what they anticipate; to explain what they need explained; to think what they must be thinking; to feel what they must be feeling.

But the general/ specific canon makes all the difference if the general provision has been enacted later.

Where there is no clear intention otherwise, a specific statute will not be controlled or nullified by a general one, regardless of the priority of enactment.

As we have said before, the fact that a statute can be 'applied in situations not expressly anticipated by Congress does not demonstrate ambiguity. It demonstrates breadth.

What is the effect of failing to honor a mandatory provision's terms? That is an issue for a treatise on remedies, not interpretation.

The ejusdem generis canon asserts that a general phrase at the end of a list is limited to the same type of things (the generic category) that are found in the specific list.

E]jusdem generis . . . says that if a series of more than two items ends with a catch-all term that is broader than the category into which the preceding items fall but which those items do not exhaust, the catch-all term is presumably intended to be no broader than that category.

Los hermoso del símbolo nunca es estar, sino sobrevenir. (Autocrítica, en "Los verde campos del Eden").

History teaches, but has no pupils.

Difícil es interpretar los sueños que desatan el haz de nuestros propósitos para mezclarlos con recuerdos y temores.(...)Son estos sueños memorias de lo pasado, que teje y confunde la mano torpe y temblorosa de un personaje invisible: el miedo".

Dado que el mundo es de una complejidad pavorosa, una buena historia de ficción lo simplifica y lo hace inteligible. La ficción ayuda a largo plazo a poner las cosas en su sitio. Al final, lo que sabemos de las sociedades lo sabemos a través de ella a lo largo del tiempo.

Because they know the name of what I am looking for, they think they know what I am looking for!

Cuando tú y la verdad me hablan, no escucho a la verdad. Te escucho a tí.

Lo que dicen las palabras no dura. Duran las palabras. Porque las palabras son siempre las mismas y lo que dicen no es nunca lo mismo.

Tu crees que me matas. Yo creo que te suicidas.

Per conoscere un luogo non è sempre necessario esserci stati.

And at this point Pereira was reminded of an oft-repeated saying of an uncle of his, an unsuccessful writer, so he quoted it. He said: Philosophy appears to concern itself only with the truth, but perhaps expresses only fantasies, while literature appears to concern itself only with fantasies, but perhaps it expresses truth. (Pereira Maintains - 17-8)

History is never tidy.

I think it's outrageous if a historian has a 'leading thought' because it means they will select their material according to their thesis

Reading Shakespeare is sometimes like looking through a window into a dark room. You don't see in. You see nothing but a reflection of yourself unable to see in. An unflattering image of yourself blind.

A Bible - should we read one or write one - this is the question!

A person who becomes regularly and sensibly emotional in his words is often considered philosophical by the most people.

A sensible visitor to the house can know through the attitude of the children towards him as what their parents talk secretly inside room about him.