Quotes About Interpretation

It's not meant to be a factual story, but it's still true.

Once the words are out there, they start to live and breathe in unpredictable ways.

I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

Your vision means what you want it to mean. It will mean what you make it to mean

see the sun and moon is no sign of sharp sight; to hear the noise of thunder is no sign of a quick ear.

I]t contains a great deal that Sun Tzu did not write, and very little indeed of what he did.

When ears don't hear, use gongs and drums. When eyes don't see, use flags and banners.

preserved in the T`UNG TIEN, and another in Ho Shin's commentary. It is suggested that before his interview with Ho Lu, Sun Tzu had only written the 13 chapters, but afterwards composed a sort of exegesis in the form of question and answer between himself and the King. Pi I-hsun, the author of the SUN TZU HSU LU, backs this up with a quotation from the WU YUEH CH`UN CH`IU: The King

cited by Pi I-hsun, we may see in this theory a probable solution of the mystery. Between Ssu-ma Ch`ien and

Tzu except the 82 P`IEN, whereas the Sui and T`ang bibliographies give the titles of others in addition to the 13 chapters, is good proof, Pi I-hsun thinks, that all of these were contained in the 82 P`IEN. Without

latter accretions are not to be considered part of the original work. Tu Mu's assertion can certainly not be taken as proof. There is every reason to suppose, then, that the 13 chapters existed in the time of Ssu-ma

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.

People see what they want to see.

There's a danger in writing a person's life from a historical vantage point, for hindsight can be smug.

Although they sometimes claim objectivity, historians are the most subjective of all writers. Hidden behind the thousands of facts unearthed by research, they safely arrange the world to reflect their own vision.

At the moment, I think we each genuinely believed ourselves to be the protagonist, and the other a naive and pardonable walk-on whose role might even have a tragic end. Still, it was good to trade compassion in that large and chilly room, regardless if one of us, or perhaps both of us, would turn out to be mistaken.

The ears of an Old One know that birds do not speak with the precision of words; instead they communicate with emotion. There are many kinds and degrees of emotion, and there are many kinds of expression even in the language of a bird.

Never has a book been as sorely misused as the Bible to justify beatings.

I must say, he sounds on very familiar terms with God, but then one never quite knows with laymen whether that indicates arrogance, reverence or ignorance.

When a woman is absorbed with God's glory, she will interpret her life according to His Truth

I'm starting to think that pure truth is impossible, and that all narrators and all people are at least a little unreliable.

When you tell a story, you shape the truth.

REMEMBER Ask who, what, when, where and how. Don't ask why.

Well? Marsha asked when Charity had left. A single word with a thousand meanings, Josh thought grimly. What was it about women and language? They could make a man squirm without putting much effort into the task. A skill he both admired and feared.