Quotes About Interpretation

Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed.

Creation was not finished till the poet came to interpret, and so complete it.

Thy acts are like mercy," said Hester, bewildered and appalled. "But thy words interpret thee as a terror!

She knocked a third time, three regular strokes, gentle, but perfectly distinct, and with meaning in them; for, modulate it with what cautious art we will, the hand cannot help playing some tune of what we feel , upon the senseless wood.

The truth seems to be, however, that, when he casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author addresses, not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand him, better than most of his schoolmates or lifemates.

The daguerreotypist once whispered her that these marks betokened the oddities of the Pyncheon family, and that the chicken itself was a symbol of the life of the old house, embodying its interpretation, likewise, although an unintelligible one, as such clews generally are. It was a feathered riddle; a mystery hatched out of an egg, and just as mysterious as if the egg had been addle!

Her beauty was not like that of a bonsai, which achieves its charm by asserting its own will in defiance of the careful bindings that lash and restrict it. How, I wondered, would my grandfather describe Mitsuru's beauty?

What we perceive as art, the universe perceives as directions.

What can fingerprints mean when they're not necessarily yours?

Truth is truth. Implications are subjective. People will hear your words and draw their own conclusion.

It wasn't just that he didn't see the big picture, sometimes he saw a different picture entirely.

It's kind of like religion. It gives us comfort to believe we have defined something that is, by its very nature, indefinable. As to whether or not we've gotten it right, well, it's all a matter of faith.

Wars were fought over the different interpretations of the same doctrine.

Elasticity is a fundamental principle of perception

But just because we have the ability to label it, doesn't mean we really know what's in the box.

Everything has meaning, or nothing has meaning. Which world would you rather live in?

Yes, yes, but you have to remember people take from a situation the thing that they need.

I suppose even a simple slogan can be twisted into whatever shape we want, like a balloon animal—we can even make it loop back around on itself, becoming a noose. In the end, the measure of who we are can be seen in the shapes of our balloon animals.

Ah. That's Tonist code for, 'Leave me the hell alone,' " Curate Mendoza says. "You might also try, 'I wish to ponder the resonance.' That works just as well.

Los símbolos tienen fuerza —anuncia—. Tú ves una cruz, y sientes algo. Ves una esvástica, y sientes otra cosa. Sin embargo, la esvástica es también un símbolo hindú que significa <>, y eso demuestra que los símbolos pueden ser mortalmente corrompidos. Por eso yo me invento los míos. Para mí están cargados de significado, y eso es lo que cuenta.

Ah! Seurat! Prophetic pointillism a century before the pixel!

Ezra the artist, who Possuelo saw fit to set free, took to painting a mural to fill one of the larger caverns. It tickled him that this could become a pilgrimage destination for future Tonists, if indeed there would be any future Tonists, and that his cave paintings might be endlessly analyzed by scholars of tomorrow. He introduced some odd elements just to confuse them. A dancing bear, a five-eyed boy, and an eleven-hour clock missing the number 4.

Before the Thunderhead, governments had constitutions and massive tomes of laws - yet even then, they were forever debated and challenged and manipulated. Wars were fought over the different interpretations of the same doctrine.

It's like art, you know? Picasso had to prove to the world he can paint the right way, before he goes putting both eyes on one side of a face, and noses stickin' outta kneecaps and stuff. See, if you paint wrong because that's the best you can do, you just a chump. But you do it because you want to? Then you're an artist.