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Ambiguous Quotes

Browse 226 quotes about Ambiguous.

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Ambiguous Quotes

“He sank back into his black-and-white world, his immobile world of inanimate drawings that had been granted the secret of motion, his death-world with its hidden gift of life. But that life was a deeply ambiguous life, a conjurer's trick, a crafty illusion based on an accidental property of the retina, which retained an image for a fraction of a second after the image was no longer present. On this frail fact was erected the entire structure of the cinema, that colossal confidence game. The animated cartoon was a far more honest expression of the cinematic illusion than the so-called realistic film, because the cartoon reveled in its own illusory nature, exulted in the impossible--indeed it claimed the impossible as its own, exalted it as its own highest end, found in impossibility, in the negation of the actual, its profoundest reason for being. The animated cartoon was nothing but the poetry of the impossible--therein lay its exhilaration and its secret melancholy. For this willful violation of the actual, while it was an intoxicating release from the constriction of things, was at the same time nothing but a delusion, an attempt to outwit mortality. As such it was doomed to failure. And yet it was desperately important to smash through the constriction of the actual, to unhinge the universe and let the impossible stream in, because otherwise--well, otherwise the world was nothing but an editorial cartoon.”

WorldLifeImportantReasonDeathPoetryUniverseBlackNatureWhiteSecretImpossibleHonestHonestyExpressionFailureConfidenceIllusionImportanceStructurePropertyGiftReleaseCinemaDelusionMelancholyMortalityRealisticBlack And WhitePresentRealismDoomedCartoonDesperationBeingDoomViolationAnimatedGameAmbiguousFrailFrailtyImageIllusoryHiddenMotionTrickDrawSinkWillfulIntoxicatingAccidentalDrawingsOutwitInanimateFractionImmobileConstrictionDesperatelyDeath World
Book:Little Kingdoms
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“It is still cheating, even if nobody comes.”

HumorFunnyLanguageSexSecretHumourJokesHumorousAffairCaughtSatireAphorismUncertainCheatInfidelityVagueObscureJokeHilariousAdulteryAmbiguityAphorismsAmourDoubtfulAmbiguousFlingUnfaithfulPunOrgasmDubiousCarrying OnAphoristAphoristsCheaterUnclearDisloyaltyComeAmbivalentCheatersPunsPlaying AroundSexual IntercourseFooling AroundUnfaithfulnessComingOrgasmsFalsenessCatchPlay On WordsStraySpermLiaisonCuckoldryCameSemenExtramaritalExtramarital SexSpermsTwo TimingWalk OnDebatableFool AroundHanky PankyTwo TimeAbstruseArguableBe UnfaithfulCommit AdulteryEquivocalPlay AroundA Bit On The SideA Play On WordsCatch Read HandedCaught Red HandedImpreciseOpen To ArgumentOpen To DebateRed HandedSpermatozoaSpermatozoonWalked On
Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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“How can one discover what he feels?" "I thought he might perhaps behave — quite differently with you?" "No, no. We seem to know each other well but I think that's just because I parade my feelings. He's affectionate, detached, passive, absolutely passive." "He's never told you about that place?" "He's never talked about himself at all.”

SadIris MurdochPassiveElusiveDetachedAmbiguousThe Nice And The Good
Book:The Nice and the Good
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“The more I protested about this ambiguity, the more Joanna pointed out to me that it was both a terrible and wonderful part of life: terrible because you can't count on anything for sure—like certain good health and no possibility of cancer; wonderful because no human being knows when another is going to die—no doctor can absolutely predict the outcome of a disease. The only thing that is certain is change. Joanna calls all of this 'delicious ambiguity.' 'Couldn't there be comfort and freedom in no one knowing the outcome of anything and all things being possible?' she asked. Was I convinced? Not completely. I still wanted to believe in magic thinking. But I was intrigued.”

HonestPossibilitiesIntriguingAmbiguous
Book:It's Always Something
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“In general we are reminded that the word heimlich is not unambiguous, but belongs to two sets of ideas, which, without being contradictory, are yet very different: on the one hand it means what is familiar and agreeable, and on the other, what is concealed and kept out of sight. Unheimlich is customarily used, we are told, as the contrary only of the first signification of heimlich, and not of the second. [...] On the other hand, we notice that Schelling says something which throws quite a new light on the concept of the Unheimlich, for which we were certainly not prepared. According to him, everything is unheimlich that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light.”

SecretKnownTabooAmbiguousUncannyShedding LightUnheimlichSchelling
Book:The Uncanny
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“What is our UN-VICE in the context of Disruption 3.0? To sum up, UN-VICE is an updated way of capturing the state of the world. Framing the dynamics of systemic disruption as UNknown, Volatile, Intersecting, Complex, Exponential enables an empowering response. We are not helpless victims unable to make decisions. With UN-VICE, we have the power to shape our own futures. KEY POINTS: OUR UN-VICE ACRONYM - UNknown: Uncertainty becomes our comfort zone. Recognize you can’t know anything perfectly and many decisions are based on assumptions. Increased uncertainty lowers the value of advice and requires increased self-reliance. Learn how to respond regardless of the lack of precedents. - Volatile: Harness change for gain. Our world, and change itself, is evolving faster than ever before. Volatility is not new; we simply can’t ignore its impact. In volatility, we see the shifting speed and texture of the changing environment. - Intersecting: Everything connects to everything else. The broader our lens, the greater the insights gained from realizing how boundaries are disappearing. - Complex: Notice emergent properties and adapt. In complex environments, inputs do not map clearly to outputs. Practitioners must acknowledge emergent properties and reconcile the immediate with the indefinite. Such systems require critical thinking, experimentation, and judgment. Evaluate emerging issues, build resiliency, and learn to adapt to expanding complexity. - Exponential: Pay attention to nonlinear types of change that increase in growth rate. Notice rapid acceleration of seemingly small shifts. Monitoring early on will mean fewer surprises.”

UncertaintyUnknownAmbiguousComplexVucaExponentialIntersectionVolatile
Book:Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World
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“If you have the personalities down, you understand them and identify with them; you can stick them in any situation and have a pretty good idea of how they're going to respond. Then it's just a matter of sanding and polishing up the jokes. But if you've got more ambiguous characters or stock stereotypes, the plastic comes through and they don't work as well. These two characters clicked for me almost immediately and I feel very comfortable working with them.”

IfsFeelsWellsTwoIdeasMatterCharacterSituationPersonalityComfortableJokesSticksGood IdeasPlasticStereotypeAmbiguityAmbiguous
Author:Bill Watterson
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“The difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people-and this is true whether or not they are well-educated-is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations-in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward.”

PeopleKnowsWellsFactsSeemsDifferencesInterestingSituationStupidIntelligentHandleIgnorantEducatedLatterContradictorySuspiciousStraightforwardSubtletyAmbiguousWell EducatedBaffled
Author:Michael Moore
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“Post-Modern space is historically specific, rooted in conventions, unlimited or ambiguous in zoning and irrational or transformational in its relation of parts to whole……. …skew or distorted spaces, created by sharp angles which exaggerate perspective…. …always keep a mental coordinate system no matter how free- form and baroque they become. The reference plane is always an implied frontality, and the route through the building or the curvilinear elements then relate to this conceptual cage”

MatterWholeFormSpaceModernBuildingPerspectiveElementsRelationPostsRelatePlanesConventionsRootedIrrationalRoutesAngleUnlimitedCagesAmbiguousImpliedCoordinatesBaroque
Author:Charles Jencks
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“The woman who fights against her father still has the possibility of leading an instinctive, feminine existence, because she rejects only what is alien to her. But when she fights against the mother she may, at the risk of injury to her instincts, attain to greater consciousness, because in repudiating the mother she repudiates all that is obscure, instinctive, ambiguous, and unconscious in her own nature.”

MayStillsMotherFightingFatherExistenceConsciousnessGreaterRiskPossibilityInstinctAliensUnconsciousInjuryRejectsFeminineObscureAmbiguousMemories Dreams Reflections
Book:The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
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“We live in an essential and unresolvable tension between our unity with nature and our dangerous uniqueness. Systems that attempt to place and make sense of us by focusing exclusively either on the uniqueness or the unity are doomed to failure. But we must not stop asking and questing because the answers are complex and ambiguous.”

AnswersDangerousEssentialsAskingUnityComplexesMake SenseTensionUniquenessDoomedAmbiguous
Book:Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History
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“Among the words that can be all things to all men, the word "race" has a fair claim to being the most common, most ambiguous and most explosive. No one today would deny that it is one of the great catchwords about which ink and blood are spilled in reckless quantities. Yet no agreement seems to exist about what race means.”

MenMeanSeemsTodayCommonRaceBloodFairsAll ThingsClaimsDenyAgreementQuantityInkRecklessAmbiguousExplosives
Book:Race: a study in superstition
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“Documentary photography is becoming more illustrative as people become more familiar with photography’s limitations and vulnerabilities. Reality has always been interpreted through layers of manipulation, abstraction, and intervention. But now, it is very much on the surface. I like this honesty about its dishonesty. Every photograph has many truths and none. Photographs are ambiguous, no matter how seemingly scientific they appear to be. They are always subject to an uncontrollable context. This is a tired statement, but worth repeating.”

PeopleMatterRealitySubjectsHonestyBecomingPhotographyTiredPhotographSurfaceStatementsFamiliarLimitationVulnerabilityManipulationLayersDocumentariesAbstractionInterventionDishonestyBecoming MoreAmbiguousUncontrollableDocumentary Photography
Author:Taryn Simon
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