Home / Topics / Interpretation Quotes

Interpretation Quotes

Browse 959 quotes about Interpretation.

Interpretation Quotes

“It is a fact capable of amiable interpretation that ladies are not the worst disposed towards a new acquaintance of their own sex, because she has points of inferiority.”

Facts Sex Worst Capable Interpretation Acquaintance Inferiority Rivalry Amiable New Acquaintances

Book:The Mill on the Floss

Source: The Mill on the Floss

“poetry has been able to function quite directly as human interpretation of the raw, loose universe. It is a mixture, if you will, of journalism and metaphysics, or of science and religion.”

Ifs Humans Has Beens Able Universe Function Journalism Interpretation Metaphysics Science And Religion Mixtures

Book:Living by Fiction

Source: Living by Fiction

“For is it not possible that middle age can be looked upon as a period of second flowering, second growth, even a kind of second adolescence? It is true that society in general does not help one accept this interpretation of the second half of life.”

Kind Doe Helping Age Growth Half Accepting Middle Periods Interpretation Adolescence Middle Ages Flowering

Author:Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“When the United Nations was born it was believed to be a positive instrument for peace. From this exalted position it became an organization in which nations would at least keep talking instead of shooting. Soon it was discovered ... that words were as deadly as any weapon, and when these words had a number of interpretations they could and did lead to conflict.”

Nations Born United Numbers Talking Position Conflict Weapons Organization Instruments Shooting Interpretation United Nations Exalted Keep Talking

Author:Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

“There is no word or action but may be taken with two hands,--either with the right hand of charitable construction, or the sinister interpretation of malice and suspicion; and all things do succeed as they are taken. To construe an evil, action well is but a pleasing and profitable deceit to myself; but to misconstrue a good thing is a treble wrong,--to myself, the action, and the author.”

Source: The Works of Joseph Hall: Devotional works; Miscellaneous theology

“You're born, you die. Everything in between is subject to interpretation.”

Life Dies Born Subjects Interpretation

Book:Lucky Guy

Source: Lucky Guy

“I became wary of simple interpretations that assumed fixed and final meanings.”

Simple Finals Photographer Fixed Interpretation

Author:John Pfahl

“Abstain from beans. There be sundry interpretations of this symbol. But Plutarch and Cicero think beans to be forbidden of Pythagoras, because they be windy and do engender impure humours and for that cause provoke bodily lust.”

Thinking Causes Food Humour Cooking Lust Symbols Culinary Interpretation Provoking Forbidden Beans Windy

Author:Richard Taverner

“Much of appreciating art or music is really the interpretation of the listener. To a certain extent it's projection - it's what people need or lack in themselves that they then put upon these people that they admire.”

People Needs Art Certain Music Is Appreciate Admire Interpretation Listeners Projection

Author:Conor Oberst

“With mimicry, with praises, with echoes, or with answers, the poets have all but outsung the bell. The inarticulate bell has found too much interpretation, too many rhymes professing to close with her inaccessible utterance, and to agree with her remote tongue. The bell, like the bird, is a musician pestered with literature.”

Found Literature Answers Too Much Poet Musician Bird Praise Agree Tongue Interpretation Bells Echoes Rhyme Utterance Inaccessible Inarticulate Mimicry

Book:The Essential Alice Meynell Collection

Source: The Essential Alice Meynell Collection

“a really good play is ambiguous - which is exactly why it endures. Every succeeding generation develops theories about it. The play's words provide very little clue. On the contrary, words are notoriously imprecise and open to every kind of interpretation, so you must search.”

Kind Littles Play Generations Theory Succeed Theater Endure Contrary Interpretation Clue Ambiguous

Author:Glenda Jackson

“We learned at an early age that it was men's interpretation of our religion that restricted women's opportunities, not our religion itself. Islam in fact had been quite progressive toward women from its inception.”

Men Facts Age Opportunity Islam Interpretation Progressive Inception

Book:Daughter of Destiny: An Autobiography

Source: Daughter of Destiny: An Autobiography

“the autobiography is at one and the same time a single element in the series of the writer's created works and an interpretation of the whole series.”

Whole Elements Series Interpretation Autobiography

Book:Mind of the Maker

Source: Mind of the Maker

“we can't be creative if we refuse to be confused. Change always starts with confusion; cherished interpretations must dissolve to make way for what's new. Great ideas and inventions miraculously appear in the space of not knowing.”

Ifs Way Ideas Change Space Creative Knowing Refuse Invention Confusion Uncertainty Confused Interpretation Not Knowing Be Creative Great Idea

Book:Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

Source: Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

“The gospel is the fulfillment of all hopes, the perfection of all philosophy, the interpretation of all revelation, the key to all the seeming contradictions of the physical and moral world.”

World Philosophy Moral Keys Perfection Fulfillment Revelations Contradiction Interpretation Seeming

Author:Max Muller

“A freak is basically anyone who needs fantasy, degradation, or punishment in order to achieve his interpretation of erotic gratification.”

Needs Order Fantasy Achieve Punishment Interpretation Freak Erotic Gratification Degradation

Author:Xaviera Hollander

“Many of us write because we are readers and have grown up in a long tradition, and we want to be able to add to that extraordinary flow of interpretations of the world.”

World Want Writing Long Able Reader Tradition Flow Add Extraordinary Interpretation

Author:Rosellen Brown

“... the actual and physical conduct of an experiment must govern the statistical procedure of its interpretation.”

Experiments Statistics Interpretation Procedures

Author:Ronald Fisher

“An incipient Mother Man has always inhabited my deeper self; creativity has always been my companion ... I have tried to express myself in a very definite style but by means of all kinds of materials and formats. I wish to discover how my own creativity unfolds under different circumstances... Naples is a dilemma that fatally elicits an oneiric interpretation and I love it and feel grateful because it has nurtured my fantasy.”

Men Feels Kind Mean Different Self Mother Wish My Own Creativity Fantasy Style Materials Circumstances Grateful Deeper All Kinds Companion Interpretation Definite Dilemma Format Naples

Author:Augusto De Luca

“It is my interpretation from the Koran that all people have equal rights. That means men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims too. Oppression doesn't exist in Islam. And in a society where all people have equal rights, that means all people should make decisions equally... This doesn't mean that we're changing God's law, It just means we're reinterpreting laws according to the development of science - and the realities of the times.”

People Men Should Mean Reality Law Decision Rights Development Equal Men And Women Interpretation Equal Rights Mean Man

Author:Yousef Saanei

“We've learned over the years that if we wanted we could write anything that just felt good or sounded good and it didn't necessarily have to have any particular meaning to us. As odd as it seemed to us, reviewers would take it upon themselves to interject their own meanings on our lyrics. Sometimes we sit and read other people's interpretations of our lyrics and think, 'Hey, that's pretty good.' If we liked it, we would keep our mouths shut and just accept the credit as if it was what we meant all along.”

People Ifs Thinking Writing Years Sometimes Wanted Felt Accepting Particular Mouths Credit Hey Odd Interpretation Reviewers

Author:John Lennon

“With a group of people, it's easer to say, I want this, this and this. It's different with the soloists, because they are the ones who will be in the spotlight. You can't force an interpretation on them. With soloists, it's all about diplomacy.”

People Want Different Force Groups Interpretation Diplomacy Spotlight

Author:Laurence Equilbey

“It's pretty standard fare in political discourse. You misconstrue what somebody said. You isolate a statement, you lend your interpretation to it and then feign moral outrage. And Democrats have been doing it for years.”

Years Has Beens Said Political Moral Standards Democrat Statements Interpretation Discourse Outrage Political Discourse Moral Outrage

Author:John F. Kerry

“I like the idea all memory is fiction, that we have queued a couple of things in the back of our minds and when we call forth those memories, we are essentially filling in the blanks. We're basically telling ourselves a story, but that story changes based on how old we are, and what mood we're in, and if we've seen photographs recently. We trust other people to tell us the story of our lives before we can remember it, and usually that's our parents and usually it works, but obviously not always. And everybody's interpretation is going to be different.”

People Ifs Mind Ideas Different Stories Remember Parent Memories Fiction Our Lives Couple Photograph Mood Interpretation Filling Trust Others Filling In

Author:Steven Tyler

“The (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) stories were great, for one. The thing that makes him a remarkable character is how he can withstand all of these different interpretations and different styles and, that's what makes a classic character a classic character; they keep coming back and you see them in a new way every time.”

Way Different Character Stories Style Classic Remarkable Interpretation New Ways Coming Back Arthur Different Styles Conan Different Interpretations Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Author:Laura Linney

“There's a rhythm to the words combined with the pictures [in a comic]. Whenever I'm working on a comic strip I re-read it, probably hundreds of times through to pay attention to how all of those things work. Sometimes even changing the angle of a character's eyebrow can really, seriously alter the effect and overall interpretation of a scene. And the insertion of a pause or a cough or a sniff, and all these things that we do in conversation, can bring it to life in a strange way.”

Way Sometimes Character Pay Attention Effects Strange Scene Conversation Rhythm Comic Pay Attention Interpretation Pauses Angle Eyebrows Comic Strips

Author:Chris Ware

“What basic psychological distortion can be found in every civilization of which we know anything? The only psychological force capable of producing these perversions is morality - the concept of right and wrong. The re-interpretation and eventual eradication of the concept of right and wrong are the belated objectives of nearly all of psychotherapy.”

Knows America Found Force Morality Civilization Capable Concepts Objectives Psychological Propaganda Interpretation Distortion Psychotherapy Perversion Belated

Author:Brock Chisholm

“I have come to the conclusion that the modern interpretation of the Declaration of Independence is something like this: I am as good as those that think themselves better and a long sight better than those who only think themselves as good.”

Thinking Long Modern Sight Independence Conclusion Interpretation Declaration Declaration Of Independence

Author:Gertrude Atherton

“The person viewing your work has no idea what the scene really looked like, nor do they care.”

Persons Ideas Care Scene No Idea Interpretation

Author:Mike Svob

“Love wasn't a piece of music you could play over and over again with different interpretations. It actually needed to be improvised as you went along.”

Different Play Pieces Needed Interpretation Different Interpretations

Author:Tobsha Learner

“We turn pain into suffering by adding on all kinds of beliefs, interpretations and judgments to it.”

Kind Pain Suffering Turns Belief Judgment All Kinds Interpretation

Author:Brenda Shoshanna

“Myths, legends and stories are the signposts previous generations have left us so we don't have to figure out our own personal journey in solitude! They have to be metaphorical, because their interpretation will be different for each individual life!”

Different Stories Individual Left Generations Journey Figures Solitude Myth Interpretation Legends Metaphorical Individual Life Previous Generations Signposts Personal Journey

Author:Fred Van Lente

“I love my wife but sometimes not so much. Frustration and fights can muck up a good thing. And just when a thing can move past differences and into the realm of peace and prosperity, another thing - an old idea or new interpretation or any spark that relights the paradigms that comfort us - will keep us where we are, where it is safe.”

Ideas Sometimes Past Moving Fighting Differences Wife Comfort Safe Good Things Prosperity My Wife Realms Frustration Interpretation Sparks Paradigm Old Ideas Love My Wife I Love My Wife

Author:Richard Schiff

“In the same way 'Lord of the Rings' was an interpretation of the book, 'The Hobbit' is being treated the same way. It will be faithfully represented with a fresh interpretation.”

Way Book Lord Rings Treated Interpretation

Author:Andy Serkis

“Once you realize that it is impossible to capture the character of the various manifestations of nature by pictorial means, and that an interpretation based on imagination is equally erroneous, you will not find yourself facing a gaping void as you might have feared.”

Mean Character Might Realizing Imagination Impossible Difficulty Various Manifestation Finding Yourself Interpretation Capture Void Pictorial

Author:Frantisek Kupka

“All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts.”

“If you have an image of someone cutting off a relationship, it's the cutting off that will lead to your suffering. If you see the action as their need being expressed, then the message is within them, not you. Any interpretation you put onto another person's message (such as passive-aggressive, withholding, etc.), you will pay for because of how you took it.”

Ifs Needs Persons Action Suffering Pay Cutting Communication Messages Etc Interpretation Aggressive Passive Nonviolent Communication Withholding Cutting Off Passive Aggressive

Author:Marshall B. Rosenberg

“Not getting our needs fulfilled is painful - but it's a sweet pain, not suffering, which is what comes from life-alienated thinking and interpretation.”

Thinking Needs Pain Suffering Sweet Communication Painful Interpretation Fulfilled Nonviolent Communication

Author:Marshall B. Rosenberg

“I accept all interpretations of my films. The only reality is before the camera. Each film I make is kind of a return to poetry for me, or at least an attempt to create a poem.”

Kind Reality Film Accepting Return Cameras Interpretation

Author:Bernardo Bertolucci

“Cutting up fowl to predict the future is, if done honestly and with as little interpretation as possible, a kind of randomization. But chicken guts are hard to read and invite flights of fancy or corruption.”

Ifs Kind Littles Hard Done Cutting Future Corruption Honestly Flight Fancy Guts Chickens Interpretation Invites Hacking Fowl

Author:Ian Hacking

“To start with invention is the mark of the fertile mind ... and leads later to the interpretation of experience; to start with the reproduction of experience is the infallible index of a barren invention.”

Mind Mark Mathematics Invention Interpretation Barren Reproduction Fertile Infallible

Author:Dorothy L. Sayers

“To me, healing means you have to recognize there is a wound and you try to understand what the sources of the wound are, which means you try to tell a story about how it came to be. So you have to engage in some historical interpretation.”

Trying Mean Stories Healing Source Historical Wounds Interpretation

Author:Cornel West

“The stronger the identity, the more it imprisons, the more it resists expansion, interpretation, renewal, contradiction.”

Identity Stronger Contradiction Interpretation Expansion Renewal

Author:Rem Koolhaas

“Any attention to them (terrorists) on the part of the media, any double-standard interpretation of their motives and results of their activity means nothing but a political and administrative support of terrorist acts”

Mean Political Results Attention Support Media Activity Standards Terrorist Motive Interpretation Double Standard Administrative

Author:Vladimir Putin

“I want to show people how there are variations and different interpretations of good and evil.”

People Want Different Shows Evil Good And Evil Interpretation Variation Different Interpretations

Author:Hideo Kojima

“Nations are like people. Once you understand the interactions between nations, it's easy to understand why things are done, in terms of foreign policy, in a certain way. But nations are not like people in the sense that we are cumulatively represented by others - and their interpretations of what our interests are may not be the same as what they really are. And that's what's dangerous, even in a democracy.”

People Way May Done Certain Nations Easy Term Interest Democracy Dangerous Policy Interpretation Foreign Policy Interaction

Author:Serj Tankian

“For a man solemnly to undertake the interpretation of any portion of Scripture without invocation of God, to be taught and instructed by His Spirit, is a high provocation of him; nor shall I expect the discovery of truth from any one who thus proudly engages in a work so much beyond his ability.”

Men Spirit Ability Taught Discovery Scripture Interpretation Portions Provocation Invocation

Book:Pneumatologia: Or, A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit, Wherein an Account is Given of His Name, Nature, Personality, Dispensation, Operations, and Effects; His Whole Work in the Old and New Creation is Explained; and the Doctrine Concerning it Vindicated

Source: Pneumatologia: Or, A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit, Wherein an Account is Given of His Name, Nature, Personality, Dispensation, Operations, and Effects; His Whole Work in the Old and New Creation is Explained; and the Doctrine Concerning it Vindicated

“Art's effect is due to the tension resulting from the clash of the collocation of elements of two (or more) systems of interpretation. This conflict has the function of breaking down automatism of perception and occurs simultaneously on the many levels of a work of art ... All levels may carry meaning.”

May Art Two Poetry Levels Effects Conflict Elements Perception Function Dues Tension Interpretation Works Of Art Breaking Down Clash

Author:Yuri Lotman

“Stopgaps do belong to the internal economy of the form, since the Whole requires them, even if only in a subordinate position ... The stopgap Luigi Paryson's 'zeppa' accepts its own banality, because without the speed that the banal allows up, it would slow up a passage that is crucial for the outcome of the work and its interpretation.”

Ifs Whole Form Poetry Literature Accepting Economy Position Speed Outcomes Internals Interpretation Crucial Passages Subordinates Banality

Author:Umberto Eco

“We current Justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as Twentieth Century Americans. We look to the history of the time of framing and to the intervening history of interpretation. But the ultimate question must be, what do the words of the text mean in our time. For the genius of the Constitution rests not in any static meaning it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs.”