Quotes About Interpretation

In a similar way, the focus on the form of an object: which leg is larger on that chair, on that table, on that bed—which leaf shape is more oval among those three different plant species—disrupts subsequent meaning processing.

Communicatory inputs from the world can occur through any of the six primary sensory modalities at any time. The important thing is to first develop the capacity to feel the deeper meanings inside any of the sensory modalities, second to seek their meanings, and third to craft congruent responses.

Nevertheless, learning how to attribute meaning to the feelings you are experiencing from the touch of the world upon you is crucial.

The answer to studied ambiguity, that is, being purposefully vague so as to allow for an elastic interpretation or to allow for latitude on a particular doctrine or view, is precision. Precision and clarity, not ambiguity, serve the church best in remaining faithful to its biblical, historic, and confessional roots. R. C. was learning that in 1965 in his own denomination.

We are not the first Christians trying to make sense of the Bible and trying to proclaim it faithfully and winsomely in the world in which we live.

have the Holy Spirit. I have the Spirit's wonderful work of illumination. I don't need commentaries; I don't need to rely on the thoughts of others. I can go right to the source. To that objection, Spurgeon replied, "It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should

Jesus, like most cultural heroes, is malleable. And his given shape has much more to say about the shapers than it does of him. Christians in all cultures and ages have the tendency to impose their understandings and cultural expressions on Scripture or beliefs.

The human mind delights in finding pattern—so much so that we often mistake coincidence or forced analogy for profound meaning. No other habit of thought lies so deeply within the soul of a small creature trying to make sense of a complex world not constructed for it.

Art is a requirement for life.

A lot of us grow up and we grow out of the literal interpretation that we get when we're children, but we bear the scars all our life. Whether they're scars of beauty or scars of ugliness, it's pretty much in the eye of the beholder.

We live better lives when we learn from our dreams.

I have often heard people who might sit with him on the lawn, ask him to translate some of it. But he always refused. One couldn't translate it, he said. It lost so much in the translation that it was better not to try. It was far wiser not to attempt it. If you undertook to translate it, there was something gone, something missing immediately.

For example, if you have a face on the right side of the slide looking off to the right, the viewers will have a tendency to do the same—and thus be looking off-screen, rather than where you want them to focus when the next slide appears.

Audience members will notice the most salient (because of its striking color, size, or other eye-catching characteristic) line first and interpret it as the most important.

In a high-trust relationship, you can say the wrong thing, and people will still get your meaning. In a low-trust relationship, you can be very measured, even precise, and they'll still misinterpret you.

The change of language is a change in reality.

We are judged... not by how we understand our words but by how our words are understood by others.

Marshall, gray-haired, storm-browed, is nevertheless a child sitting at a child's desk. He folds his papers impatiently, stuffs them into a leather satchel and stands. "We are judged," he says as he moves toward the door, "not by how we understand our words but by how our words are understood by others." He opens the door, then slams it behind him, but its sound is obliterated by my booming laughter.

It would be rather curious if "the people" means only such persons as the government selects. To suggest that "the right of the people" means only a command issued by a government to persons appointed by the government demeans the very nature of a bill of rights.

We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these assumptions.

Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It's not logical; it's psychological.

Soy lo que quieras ver. Cada persona ve algo diferente. ¿Qué es lo que ves tú?

Remember: the universe neither judges, nor interprets, nor second guesses your will. If it did, there would be no poverty, no hunger, no suffering.

The non-scientist in the street probably has a clearer notion of physics, chemistry and biology than of statistics, regarding statisticians as numerical philatelists, mere collector of numbers.