Ambiguity Quotes - Page 11

• The ambiguity of poetic language answers to the ambiguity of human life as a whole, and therein lies its unique value. All interpretations of poetic language only interpret what the poetry has already interpreted.

  Hans-Georg Gadamer

  Lying, Unique, Answers

  Hans-Georg Gadamer, Robert Bernasconi (1986). “The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays”, p.71, Cambridge University Press

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• The framers of the constitution employed words in their natural sense; and, where they are plain and clear, resort to collateral aids to interpretation is unnecessary, and cannot be indulged in to narrow or enlarge the text; but where there is ambiguity or doubt, or where two views may well be entertained, contemporaneous and subsequent practical construction is entitled to the greatest weight.

  Melville Fuller

  Two, Views, Law

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• Americans always think they have to lead. I'm interested in ambiguity.

  Mary Harron

  Thinking

  Source: www.believermag.com

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• ...one of hallmarks of a creative person is the ability to tolerate ambiguity, dissonance, inconsistency, things out of place. But one of the rules of a well-run corporation is that surprise is to be minimized. Yet if this rule were applied to the creative process, nothing worth reading would get written, nothing worth seeing would get painted, nothing worth living with and using would ever get designed.

  Ralph Caplan

  Running, Reading, Creative

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• Because the meaning of a story does not lie on its surface, visible and self-defining, does not mean that meaning does not exist. Indeed, the ambiguity of meaning, its inner private quality, may well be part of the writer's vision.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Lying, Mean, Self

  Joyce Carol Oates (1992). “The Oxford Book of American Short Stories”, p.8, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Yet again, an ancient answer echoes across the centuries: Listen! Listen to stories! For what stories do, above all else, is hold up a mirror so that we can see ourselves. Stories are mirrors of human be-ing, reflecting back our very essence. In a story, we come to know precisely the both/and, mixed-upped-ness of our very being. In the mirror of another's story, we can discover our tragedy and our comedy-and therefore our very human-ness, the ambiguity and incongruity, that lie at the core of the human condition.

  Ernest Kurtz

  Lying, Echoes, Mirrors

  Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham (2009). “The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning”, p.63, Bantam

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• Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes.

  William Safire

  Eye, Hot, Ems

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• For though we may be the Earth's gardeners, we are also its weeds.  And we won't get anywhere until we come to terms with this crucial ambiguity about our role - that we are at once the problem and the only possible solution to the problem.

  Michael Pollan

  Weed, Roles, Earth

  Michael Pollan (2007). “Second Nature: A Gardener's Education”, p.115, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• It wasn't the intention to do something important, or to even relate about social issues. The ground is so fertile in the justice world, dealing with the death penalty and the Innocence Project, for characters that have a moral ambiguity, which we were both attracted to. It's the idea that everybody has their reasons. Whatever their actions are, whether you agree with them or not, you can understand why they're feeling that way, in terms of racism or even the death penalty.

  Richard LaGravenese

  Character, Ideas, Issues

  Source: collider.com

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• That's what I love about being mayor. Even if the problem is getting the cat out of the tree - from that to the biggest problem, you're in charge. No ambiguity. Leaders lead.

  Shirley Franklin

  Cat, Tree, Leader

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• To embrace luck, you have to enhance your tolerance for ambiguity.

  Twyla Tharp

  Tolerance, Luck, Embrace

  Twyla Tharp, Mark Reiter (2003). “The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life”, Simon and Schuster

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• I love discomfort. I mean, my whole life is discomfort. One reason I can never retire is that the idea of just sitting on the beach totally comfortable is not a desideratum in my life. I like ambiguity, I like conflict, I like uncertainly.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Beach, Mean, Ideas

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• This is a general comment that you should take a committed dose of whatever it is you're taking so that there is no ambiguity, because there's nothing worse than a sub-threshold psychedelic experience.

  Terence McKenna

  Psychedelic, Should, Threshold

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• If I had to fall in love with all the actresses I play with and live the situations I have to play, I would be lost ! I need to be solid and know who I really am to have fun in making something else. I noticed, while talking with other actors, that they often let ambiguity float. I don't like ambiguity, it's dangerous. I need distance. I also think that the result would prevent the audience from identifying to the characters. If you feel the things too strongly, you simply close the doors.

  Olivier Martinez

  Falling In Love, Fun, Distance

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• You cannot grow in the integrative dance of action and contemplation without a strong tolerance for ambiguity, an ability to allow, forgive, and contain a certain degree of anxiety, and a willingness to not know-and not even need to know. This ever widens and deepens your perspective. This is how you allow and encounter Mystery and move into the contemplative zone.

  Richard Rohr

  Strong, Moving, Perspective

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• To conclude, The Light of humane minds is Perspicuous Words, but by exact definitions first snuffed, and purged from ambiguity; Reason is the pace; Encrease of Science, the way; and the Benefit of man-kind, the end.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Science, Men, Light

  Thomas Hobbes (2015). “Annotated LEVIATHAN with English Grammar Exercises: by Thomas Hobbes (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, p.38, Powell Publications, LLC

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• We didn't want to live anymore in the old logic. And I like that. The consequence of that is to create the dream of that, but we all know this dream may be not possible. So here we have the key of the ambiguity of the atmosphere of my films. Is it possible, this dream? Is it as funny as it seems, or is it tragic?

  Albert Serra

  Dream, Keys, Atmosphere

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Images work on so many different levels. As a writer you feel them, try not to get in their way or narrow them down to anything other or less complex. A writer is a curator of sorts - once you've brought the images together you try to stand at a respectful distance and let them speak for themselves. Try not to mess with their ambiguities and contradictions. They are what they are, irreducible. This is their integrity.

  Laurie Sheck

  Integrity, Distance, Trying

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Every worldview has its ambiguities - debatable elements that people simply will not see to eye on. There's nothing wrong with that as long as the disagreement is principled and dignified. I actually think that arguments - as opposed to quarrels - are good things because they're the best way to figure out what's true. Share your reasons, listen carefully to each other, be nice, and may the best idea win.

  Greg Koukl

  Nice, Eye, Thinking

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• I think the Bhagavad Gita is about both the forces of light and the forces of darkness that exist within our own self, within our own soul; that our deepest nature is one of ambiguity. We have evolutionary forces there - forces of creativity, and love, and compassion, and understanding. But we also have darkness inside us - the diabolical forces of separation, fear and delusion. And in most of our lives, there is a battle going on within ourselves.

  Deepak Chopra

  Creativity, Thinking, Compassion

  Source: bigthink.com

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• The problem with American cinema is that because you're making films with huge amounts of money you need to hit the lowest common denominator in order to make it back and so therefore you're not allowed to play with moral ambiguities or ask questions.

  David Mackenzie

  Moral, Common, Problem

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

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• Different reactions while film test screening doesn't mean even the audience thinks ambiguity is a bad thing. But if you're asking them right away to start checking things off, they don't know what to do. I think at their best, it applies to when the audience knows what it is. Then, when they say, "Oh, well, I thought it was too boring in blah-blah-blah part," then you better pay attention to it. It's like going for the hamburger. Better be the good hamburger I went for.

  Barry Levinson

  Mean, Thinking, Different

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all America stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.

  Paul Ryan

  Moral, White Supremacy, Bigotry

  Source: www.wbur.org

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• If there is a single tragic flaw that mars our biggest enterprises, it is conservatism - the failure to fail, and fail big, in an era of unprecedented volatility and ambiguity.

  Tom Peters

  Mars, Eras, Flaws

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• I had to learn to get comfortable in a role of ambiguity where I had to seek out advisers and learn quickly.

  Brian Chesky

  Roles, Adviser, Comfortable

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