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Meaning Quotes

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Meaning Quotes

“And these explanations of the sacred scriptures are delivered by mystic expressions in allegories, for the whole of the law appears to these men to resemble a living animal, and its express commandments seem to be the body, and the invisible meaning concealed under and lying beneath the plain words resembles the soul, in which the rational soul begins most excellently to contemplate what belongs to itself, as in a mirror, beholding in these very words the exceeding beauty of the sentiments, and unfolding and explaining the symbols, and bringing the secret meaning naked to the light to all who are able by the light of a slight intimation to perceive what is unseen by what is visible.”

BibleScriptureMeaningInterpretationAllegorySpiritual Meaning
Book:The Works of Philo
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“This brings us to one of the deepest truths in all scripture: It is not about you; it is all about him. This truth will set you free. About the eternal God, God the Son, Jesus Christ – Colossians 1:16 tells us that, ‘all things were made by him and for him’, and that includes you and me. You and I exist for our Lord Jesus, to live for him, and he enables us to do that by being our shepherd.”

TruthBibleChristian LifeMeaningMeaning Of LifeChristian LivingBible StudyPsalmsPsalm 23
Book:The Psalm 23 Life: Experiencing the Love of God Every Day
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“Lakini damu na maji vina maana kubwa katika maisha yetu. Biblia inaeleza kuwa wakati Yesu Kristo akiwa msalabani alichomwa ubavu wake kwa mkuki, ikatoka damu na maji, ndipo zilipozaliwa sakramenti za kanisa. Aidha, tukio la askari wa Kirumi kumchoma Yesu na damu na maji kutoka lina maana nyingine kubwa katika maisha yetu. Hapo ndipo Ukristo ulipozaliwa; na ni kwa sababu hiyo mwanamke anapojifungua hutoa damu na maji kutokana na kupasuka kwa utando wa mfuko wa uzazi. Kutokana na hayo, Wakristo wanapoabudu msalaba wanaeleza umuhimu wa matukio na mafundisho waliyopata kupitia mateso aliyopata kiongozi wao na kuwa, msalaba ni chombo cha ukombozi.”

LifeLeaderBibleJesus ChristMeaningSacramentsPersecutionChristiansCrossTeachingsMaishaBibliaYesu KristoSpearKiongoziMaanaBlood And WaterMkukiWakristoDamu Na MajiMsalabaniUkristoRibChristanityMafundishoMatesoUbavuChombo Cha UkomboziInstrument Of RedemptionSakramenti Za KanisaUtando Wa Mfuko Wa Uzazi
Author:Enock Maregesi
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“The real battle for Christians today is not Armageddon, it is the battle for a sensible approach to that ancient library of books we call the Bible. The Bible was written by human beings, with all the longings, prejudices and illusions that characterise us as a species. It is not an apocalyptic almanac, a mystical code book, an inerrant textbook for living. It is a compendium of a particular people's struggle with meaning; so it should encourage us to do the same in our day.”

ChristianityBibleMeaning
Book:Doubts and Loves: What is Left of Christianity
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“It has been the practice of all Christian commentators on the Bible, and of all Christian priests and preachers, to impose the Bible on the world as a mass of truth, and as the word of God; they have disputed and wrangled, and have anathematized each other about the supposable meaning of particular parts and passages therein; one has said and insisted that such a passage meant such a thing, another that it meant directly the contrary, and a third, that it meant neither one nor the other, but something different from both; and this they have called understanding the Bible. It has happened, that all the answers that I have seen to the former part of 'The Age of Reason' have been written by priests: and these pious men, like their predecessors, contend and wrangle, and understand the Bible; each understands it differently, but each understands it best; and they have agreed in nothing but in telling their readers that Thomas Paine understands it not.”

TruthUnderstandingBibleMeaningPriestsWord Of GodDisagreementPiousThe BiblePreachersDisputeThe Age Of ReasonWrangle
Book:The age of reason
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“When does a job feel meaningful? Whenever it allows us to generate delight or reduce suffering in others. Though we are often taught to think of ourselves as inherently selfish, the longing to act meaningfully in our work seems just as stubborn a part of our make-up as our appetite for status or money. It is because we are meaning-focused animals rather than simply materialistic ones that we can reasonably contemplate surrendering security for a career helping to bring drinking water to rural Malawi or might quit a job in consumer goods for one in cardiac nursing, aware that when it comes to improving the human condition a well-controlled defibrillator has the edge over even the finest biscuit. But we should be wary of restricting the idea of meaningful work too tightly, of focusing only on the doctors, the nuns of Kolkata or the Old Masters. There can be less exalted ways to contribute to the furtherance of the collective good.... ....An endeavor endowed with meaning may appear meaningful only when it proceeds briskly in the hands of a restricted number of actors and therefore where particular workers can make an imaginative connection between what they have done with their working days and their impact upon others.”

JobsWorkCareersConnectionsImpactMeaningCollective Good
Book:The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
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“Our exertions generally find no enduring physical correlatives. We are diluted in gigantic intangible collective projects, which leave us wondering what we did last year and, more profoundly, where we have gone and quite what we have amounted to.... How different everything is for the craftsman who ... can step back at the end of a day or lifetime and point to an object--whether a square of canvas, a chair or a clay jug--and see it as a stable repository of his skills and an accurate record of his years, and hence feel collected together in one place, rather than strung out across projects which long ago evaporated into nothing one could hold or see.”

WorkProjectsMeaningPermanenceCraft
Book:The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
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“You finally complete your first paper, but even its appearance in a “highly respected” and thick biweekly journal sandwiched between two other equally dull and opaque articles fails to alleviate your growing boredom and disillusionment with a career in physics, a career that once seemed to promise excitement, glamor and importance. Are you going to spend your whole life in a mad, cutthroat ego trip just to see your name in print every six months? Or is the real pleasure in seeing your name referenced in someone else’s useless article?”

WorkMeaningAcademiaFarce
Book:Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System That Shapes Their Lives
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“Nothing reveals more clearly the degree to which employed professionals are alienated from their subjects than does the sharply contrasting behavior of the hobbyists or “buffs” in their fields. When hobbyists encounter one another at a social gathering, before long you will find them talking eagerly about the content of their subject of common interest, showing an excitement, enthusiasm, wonder and curiosity that is reminiscent of beginning professional students. This rarely happens when professionals talk casually with their colleagues. Unlike the amateurs, the professionals don’t talk much about the work itself: they often appear detached from their subject, as if they don’t derive much satisfaction from it. Yes, they “talk shop,” but their focus is so far from the content of the work itself that you would have a hard time if you had to guess what kind of “shop” they work in. A commercial bank? A junior high school? A government agency? A university department? Casual conversation among professionals tends to focus on the actions and personalities of employers and powerful figures within their fields—the standard gossip topics of the powerless. Their gossip is by no means idle, however, for the politics are central to their work as professionals.”

PoliticsWorkMeaningProfessionalsHobbyists
Book:Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System That Shapes Their Lives
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“Bob Jervis, the original author of Turbo C, gave a tech talk recently in which he pointed out that even just the set of features the audience had asked for was a lifetime of work. This phrasing resonated deeply with me. It was similar to my realization about 18 months back that I only have a small finite number of 5-year projects left, and I have to start choosing them very carefully. After writing my own "production interpreter", I realized that the work remaining was unbounded. I mean it. Unbounded.”

LifeWorkProjectsMeaning
Author:Steve Yegge
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“Indeed, the most difficult part about becoming a professional is adopting the professional attitude and learning to be comfortable adhering to the given ideological framework, which some students find quite alien. When students fail to complete professional training programs, they almost always do so because they have problems adjusting their attitude, not because they are unable to learn the technical tricks of the trade. That is, people who drop out of school usually do so not because they lack the ability to go farther, but because they are consciously or unconsciously unwilling to become the type of person the system demands. The greater the adjustment an individual has to make to behave in the expected way, the less likely it is that that individual will do so.”

LifeWorkMeaningProfessional
Book:Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System That Shapes Their Lives
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“If you are a professional, coming to understand the political nature of what you do, as part of an honest reassessment of what it really means to be a professional, can be liberating. It can help you recover your long-forgotten social goals and begin to pursue them immediately, giving your life greater meaning and eliminating a major source of stress. It can help you become a savvy player in the workplace and reclaim some lost autonomy. And, ironically, it can help you command greater respect from management and receive greater recognition and reward, without necessarily working harder.”

PoliticsWorkMeaningProfessionals
Book:Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System That Shapes Their Lives
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“Correct," she said, "but I don't think he even realizes it. You probably encounter people like him all the time. High-functioning sleepwalkers, essentially. What was it in this statement that made Clark want to weep? He was nodding, taking down as much as he could. "Do you think he'd describe himself as unhappy in his work?" "No," Dahlia said, "because I think people like him think work is supposed to be drudgery punctuated by very occasional moments of happiness, but when I say happiness, I mostly mean distraction. You know what I mean?" "No, please elaborate.» "Okay, say you go into the break room," she said, "and a couple people you like are there, say someone's telling a funny story, you laugh a little, you feel included, everyone's so funny, you go back to your desk with a sort of, I don't know, I guess afterglow would be the word? You go back to your desk with an afterglow, but then by four or five o'clock the day's just turned into yet another day, and you go on like that, looking forward to five o'clock and then the weekend and then your two or three annual weeks of paid vacation time, day in day out, and that's what happens to your life." "Right," Clark said. He was filled in that moment with an inexpressible longing.”

LifeWorkDepressionCapitalismMeaningExistentialismCorporate Life
Book:Station Eleven
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“The more my thoughts wander the harder it gets- everything feels so disconnected. Me and my work, me and the factory, me and society. There's always something in the way. It's like we're touching, but we are not. What am I doing here? I've been living on this planet for more than twenty years, and I still can't talk properly, can't do anything that a machine can't do better.”

WorkEmploymentMeaningBoredomSignificanceEnnuiDisconnection Society
Book:The Factory
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“When we step into the leading role of our own life, rather than continue to play supporting roles in others, we are energized and vitalized. Work is no longer drudgery. It becomes fun, meaningful, productive, and often profitable.”

WorkMeaningAgencyProfitable
Book:Ignite Your Leadership: Proven Tools for Leaders to Energize Teams, Fuel Momentum and Accelerate Results
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“Av jord var de kommet, til jord skulle de bli, og i de få årene livet levde i dem, var det fra jorden det hentet sin kraft. Den eneste veien ut av det, var lenger inn i det. Lavt er pliktens himmel hvelvet, men det er en himmel. Under den gikk Lamek, og der fant han sin mening. Denne meningen hadde en fiende, det var lengselen etter noe annet, og den bekjempet han med det eneste middelet han kjente: mer arbeid. Arbeidet var således både flukten, og det han flyktet fra.”

WorkDutyMeaningKnausgaard
Book:A Time for Everything
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“If I knew I was going to die tomorrow, And Spring came the day after tomorrow, I would die peacefully, because it came the day after tomorrow. If that’s its time, when else should it come? I like it that everything is real and everything is right; And I like that it would be like this even if I didn’t like it. And so, if I die now, I die peacefully Because everything is real and everything is right.”

LifeGodTruthDeathNatureBeautySpringPeacefulMeaningTranquilityPaganismAlrightIt Is What It IsPantheism
Book:The Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro
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“We have been cut off from our souls in the West, and because romantic love has become our religion, we think we can find fulfillment through this extraordinary and powerful force that draws us into an illusion of permanence. Passion makes us feel alive, makes us sing, makes us feel in touch with something powerful and wonderful, just as it would if we followed this meaning in life in a more spiritual practice. In the West it is often through such relationships, through another human being, that we search desperately for something, not knowing it is to be found within ourselves.”

LoveSoulMeaning
Book:Mythical Lovers, Divine Desires: The World's Great Love Legends
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“If we surrender our voice now, we surrender our ability to shape what stays human. This isn’t just about resisting progress. It’s about refusing to disappear inside it. The systems rising around us were not built to protect meaning, nuance, or soul. And if we don’t lift our voice — with intention, urgency, and truth — we risk becoming fluent in technology, but silent in humanity. This is not a warning. It’s a call to remember what must remain.” — Sarah Kissane, Obsolete: The Education Wake-Up Call”

SoulTruthHumanityVoiceTechnologyProgressResistanceMeaningAiObsolete
Book:Obsolete: The Education Wake-Up Call
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