Quotes About Interpretation

There's no difference,' he said, 'between speaking aloud or in one's own head – either way, no-one listens.

Never mind the truth. The past is what I say it is. That is the freedom of teaching the ignorant

If all honest observation ends up sounding critical, is it the honesty you then reject, or the act of observation?

My Queen, neither mortal nor immortal can fathom the mind of an artist. But as a general rule, between two possible answers, choose the more sordid one.' 'Of course. How silly of me.

The things said and the things not said. In the space in between, a thousand worlds.

Like all men - you hate to say you don't know and leave it at that. You have an answer to every question, and if you don't you make one up." "An outrageous accusation, my dear. It is not a matter of making up answers, it is rather an exercise in conjecture. There is a difference—" "That's what you say, not what I have to listen to. All the time. Endless words. Does a man even exist who believes there can be too many words?" "I don't know.

Or maybe just confused. All those bickering worshippers, each one convinced their version is the right one. Imagine getting prayers from ten million believers, not one of them believing the same thing as the one kneeling beside him or her. Imagine all those Holy Books, not one of them agreeing on anything, yet all of them purporting to be the word of that one god. Imagine two armies annihilating each other, both in that god's name. Who wouldn't be driven mad by all that?

Twenty thousand? Fifty? Five? Scholars make a career of not agreeing on anything.

Astrology is just a finger pointing at reality.

An explosion groans to the west of them, and Arrow involuntarily looks in the direction of the sound. Nermin, who hasn't looked, smiles. 'I think they're trying to send us a message.' 'What is the message?' she asks as another shell lands in the same area. Nermin shrugs. 'I don't know. I'm making a special effort not to listen.

I'd always suspected that the Bill of Rights occasionally had a "liberal" interpretation.

You keep saying that. I'm not sure it means what you think it means.

Never blame a text from the Bible for your behavior. It's irresponsible. Anybody who says X, Y, and Z is in the bible - it's as if one says, 'I have no role in evaluating this.

Yet somehow, if the translation from reality into symbols is done artfully enough, the logic of calculus can use one real-world truth to generate another. Truth in, truth out.

She had a disapproving look that was just a little exaggerated; if you look carefully at that look, you can spot a smile that hangs around its edges and usually draw it out.

We all have a remarkable capacity to slot our observations into preconceived frameworks, and act accordingly. In other words, our intellectual models of contact generate history as surely as they recount it.

Although the past really happened—in the same way that the world is indeed out there—history is something we make.

W]e can discover the world, but we decide upon the truth.

Tryphena?" "It's Greek. Means 'delicate.' Brin came across it the other day somewhere in the Bible,

Only perspective brings truth into focus. Where you stand when you look at the facts will determine how they appear.

Flowers are the hieroglyphics of angels. Loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.

it is okay to make exceptions to the letter of the policy to maintain the spirit of the policy

From their point of view, it seemed to indicate another hacker sin — inefficiency.

I read it more carefully than anyone had ever read it. . . . Kahn's book to me is like the Vedas," he explains, citing the centuries-old Indian text. "There's an expression I learned: 'If a man loses his cow, he looks for it in the Vedas.