Quotes About Interpretation

I began to see as all this weighing and sifting what this text means and that text means, and whether folks are saved all by God's grace, or whether there goes an ounce o' their own will to't, was no part o' real religion at all. You may talk o' these things for hours on end, and you'll only be all the more coxy and conceited for't.

How can a man explain at the expense of a woman?

One morning, some weeks after her arrival at Lowick, Dorothea - but why always Dorothea? Was her point of view the only possible one with regard to this marriage?

As the stone which has been kicked by generations of clowns may come by curious little links of effect under the eyes of a scholar, through whose labors it may at last fix the date of invasions and unlock religions, so a bit of ink and paper which has long been an innocent wrapping or stop-gap may at last be laid open under the one pair of eyes which have knowledge enough to turn it into the opening of a catastrophe.

Language is a finer medium." "Yes, for those who can't paint," said Naumann.

There'd be two 'pinions about a cracked bell, if the bell could hear itself.

manners must be very marked indeed before they cease to be interpreted by preconceptions either confident or distrustful

so much that seems to me a consecration of ugliness rather than beauty.

She filled up all blanks with unmanifested perfections, interpreting him as she interpreted the works of Providence, and accounting for seeming discords by her own deafness to the higher harmonies. And there are many blanks left in the weeks of courtship, which a loving faith fills with happy assurance.

The lines and lights of the human countenance are like other symbols,–not always easy to read without a key.

Es doloroso oír decir que algo es muy hermoso y no ser capaz de apreciarlo... como la ceguera cuando otras personas hablan del color del cielo. - Hay muchas cosas en la apreciación del arte que dependen de gustos adquiridos (...). El arte es un lenguaje muy antiguo con muchos estilos artificiosos y a veces el principal placer que se obtiene surge del hecho mismo de reconocerlos (p.230).

Do you suppose the public reads with a view to its own conversion?

A boy's sheepishness is by no means a sign of overmastering reverence; and while you are making encouraging advances to him under the idea that he is overwhelmed by a sense of your age and wisdom, ten to one he is thinking you extremely queer. The only consolation I can suggest to you is, that the Greek boys probably thought the same of Aristotle.

But as to listening to what one lawyer says without asking another—I wonder at a man o' your cleverness, Mr. Dill. It's well known there's always two sides, if no more; else who'd go to law, I should like to know?

three cuttle-fish sable, and a commentator rampant.

I care only to know, if possible, the lasting meaning that lies in all religious doctrine from the beginning till now.

The very truth hath a color from the disposition of the utterer.

But it is really impossible to decide this question by a glance at his person; the lines and lights of the human countenance are like other symbols,–not always easy to read without a key. On an a priori view of Wakem's aquiline nose, which offended Mr. Tulliver, there was not more rascality than in the shape of his stiff shirt-collar, though this too along with his nose, might have become fraught with damnatory meaning when once the rascality was ascertained.

See the difference between the impression a man makes on you when you walk by his side in familiar talk, or look at him in his home, and the figure he makes when seen from a lofty historical level, or even in the eyes of a critical neighbour who thinks of him as an embodied system or opinion rather than as a man. Mr.

Brevity is justified at once to those who readily understand, and to those who will never understand.

thee mustna take me unkind. I wasna driving at thee in what I said just now. Some 's got one way o' looking at things and some 's got another." "Nay, nay, Addy, thee mean

The Christian theologian will never find a contradiction between the propositions of faith and reason, because it is his job to interpret them out of existence.

If you're listening, I'm the walrus, too.

The speech of flowers excels the flowers of speech.