Quotes About Interpretation

Aš galvoju, kad visai nesvarbu, kokioj gamtoj, kokiam gamtovaizdy žmogus, tauta gyvena. Kas svarbu, yra tai, k? jis ? t? gamtovaizd? deda.

Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. It it a lurid piece of nonsense, convoluted, implausible, peopled by unconvincing characters, written in drearily pedestrian prose, frequently ridiculous and wilfully bizarre. Needless to say, I doubt you'll believe a word of it.

That passage makes, clearly and for the first time, the crucial distinction between rejecting an argument for a conclusion and rejecting the conclusion itself. The art of criticism cannot thrive unless that distinction is grasped. (pp51)

One thing I like to tell my clients is that the Chinese word for failure can be interpreted to mean "opportunity.

In the Modern Age, there are still those who refuse to contradict a single word of the Bible, even though the Bible contradicts itself.

words are tricky little bastards, and very rarely say what you want them to say [...]

People are always judging or criticizing you, or focusing on what you're trying to say on one little album, on one little song, but to me it's a lifetime's work.

Look at the score and make it come alive as if [you] were the composer. If you can do that, you're a conductor and if you can't, you're not. If I don't become Brahms or Tchaikovsky or Stravinsky when I'm conducting their works, then it won't be a great performance.

Shelves full of books are all around me. Opening the different volumes I take a look, and find the pages covered with writings in unknown scripts — tadpole traces, bird feet markings, twisted branches. And in my dream I am able to read them all, to make sense of everything despite its difficulty.

my father claims to be able to understand it, though perhaps he would not thanks me for the suggestion that he is representative. (Introduction)

I think you enjoy the game more if you don't know the rules. Anyway you're on the same wavelength as the referees.

Human thinking depends on metaphor. We understand new or complex things in relation to things we already know.

You create your story in consciousness as you interpret your own behavior, and as you listen to other people's thoughts about you. The life story is not the work of a historian [...]; it is more like a work of historical fiction that makes plenty of references to real events and connects them by dramatizations and interpretations that might or might not be true to the spirit of what happened.

What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance. EPICTETUS, 1st–2nd century

In Lerner's experiments, the desperate need to make sense of events can lead people to inaccurate conclusions (for example, a woman "led on" a rapist);

Events in the world affect us only through our interpretations of them, so if we can control our interpretations, we can control our world.

There is a principle in philosophy and rhetoric called the principle of charity, which says that one should interpret other people's statements in their best, most reasonable form, not in the worst or most offensive way possible.

Or might that framework itself alter a student's reactions to ancient texts, creating a feeling of threat and a stress response to what otherwise would have been experienced merely as discomfort or dislike?

To summarize the idea that our emotions, our reactions to events, and some mental illnesses are caused by the mental filters through which we look at the world, I could not say it any more concisely than Shakespeare: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Frame it as a debate, rather than a conflict. Argue as if you're right, but listen as if you're wrong (and be willing to change your mind). Make the most respectful interpretation of the other person's perspective. Acknowledge where you agree with your critics and what you've learned from them.

naive realism": Each of us thinks we see the world directly, as it really is. We further believe that the facts as we see them are there for all to see, therefore others should agree with us. If they don't agree, it follows either that they have not yet been exposed to the relevant facts or else that they are blinded by their interests and ideologies.

What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance. EPICTETUS, 1st–2nd century1

There is no reality, only perception.

sesgo de confirmación-, la tendencia a buscar e interpretar nuevas pruebas de formas que confirmen lo que uno piensa. A las personas se les da muy bien cuestionar las afirmaciones hechas por otros, pero cuando se trata de su creencia, entonces es su posesión, casi como una hija, y en ese caso lo que quieren es protegerla, no cuestionarla y arriesgarse a perderla.