Quotes About Interpretation

He had more tow on his distaff Than Gerveis knew.

Oon of us two moste bowen, doutelees; And sith a man is moore resonable Than womman is, ye moste been suffrable.

A wys wyf, if that she kan hir good, Shal beren him on hond the cow is wood.

Beauty conveys truth, but not the way we thought. Aesthetic significance does not deliver truth about the human condition in general: it delivers truth about the condition of a particular human, the artist.

Unusually among European languages, English has distinct words for 'story' and 'history' rather than the same word for both: 'Was für eine Geschichte!' means 'What a story!' rather than 'an excellent history book', and une histoire can be tittle-tattle in the street as well as a work of historical scholarship. For Winston Churchill, there was never any distinction.

Ist das Nein am Ja oder das Ja am Nein schuld?

Since one never can absolutely know another, as this would mean knowledge of every particular thought and feeling; since we must rather form a conception of a personal unity out of the fragments of another person in which alone he is accessible to us, the unity so formed necessarily depends upon that portion of the Other which our standpoint toward him permits us to see.

Art is the sensuous presentation of ideas

To judge a thing that has substance and solid worth is quite easy, to comprehend it is much harder, and to blend judgement and comprehension in a definitive description is the hardest thing of all.

he has this huge blind spot where other people have a sense of humor.

Suppose now one of your hands hot, and the other cold, and that they are both at once put into the same vessel of water, in an intermediate state, will not the water seem cold to one hand, and warm to the other?

T]he communicating of ideas marked by words is not the chief and only end of language, as is commonly supposed.

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.

There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.

That is what all poets do: they talk to themselves out loud; and the world overhears them

the devil is not so black as he is painted.

The British and Americans are two people separated by a common language.

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules

The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it.

The reason why the continental European is, to the Englishman or American, so surprisingly ignorant of the Bible, is that the authorized English version is a great work of literary art, and the continental versions are comparatively artless.

The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.

The greatest fallacy with communication, is the belief that it has actually occurred.

The simple biggest problem in communication is the illusion that has taken place.

If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion