Interpretation Quotes

• Many people make the mistake of confusing information with knowledge. They are not the same thing. Knowledge involves the interpretation of information. Knowledge involves listening.

  Henning Mankell

  Mistake, Information Knowledge, People

  FaceBook post by Henning Mankell from Oct 03, 2012

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• Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Essence, Practice, Doctrine

  "Meditations". Book by Marcus Aurelius. Book VIII, 22,

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• There are no facts, only interpretations.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Encouraging, Witty, Truth

  Notebooks, Summer 1886 - Fall 1887.

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• All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.

  George Eliot

  Keys, Mystery, Wonder

  George Eliot (2006). “Daniel Deronda Volume I EasyRead Edition”, p.82, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

  Elliot W. Eisner

  Art, Perspective, World

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• Everyone in a complex system has a slightly different interpretation. The more interpretations we gather, the easier it becomes to gain a sense of the whole.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Different, Gains, Easier

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• All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Power, Reality, Political

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• Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world -- in order to set up a shadow world of ''meanings.''

  Susan Sontag

  Art, Revenge, Order

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• Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Facts, Cognitive Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

  "The Will to Power". Book by Friedrich Nietzsche, aphorism 552, 1888.

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• Less information often leads to more interpretation.

  John Paul Caponigro

  Information

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• In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Cases, Doubtful

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• Through interpretation, understanding; through understanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection.

  Freeman Tilden

  Appreciation, Understanding, Protection

  Freeman Tilden (2009). “Interpreting Our Heritage”, p.63, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.

  Edward Sapir

  Choices, Community, Language

  Edward Sapir (1949). “Culture, Language, and Personality: Selected Essays”, p.69, Univ of California Press

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• The human race is facing all kinds of problems, and all we are doing is pointing fingers and saying, 'Your interpretation of the problem is different from my interpretations of the problem.

  Shane Smith

  Race, Different, Kind

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• We see, not change of aspect, but change of interpretation.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Aspect

  Ludwig Wittgenstein (1967). “Zettel”, Univ of California Press

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• All interpretations made by a scientist are hypotheses, and all hypotheses are tentative. They must forever be tested and they must be revised if found to be unsatisfactory. Hence, a change of mind in a scientist, and particularly in a great scientist, is not only not a sign of weakness but rather evidence for continuing attention to the respective problem and an ability to test the hypothesis again and again.

  Ernst Mayr

  Science, Forever, Mind

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• The mathematical framework of quantum theory has passed countless successful tests and is now universally accepted as a consistent and accurate description of all atomic phenomena. The verbal interpretation, on the other hand - i.e., the metaphysics of quantum theory - is on far less solid ground. In fact, in more than forty years physicists have not been able to provide a clear metaphysical model.

  Fritjof Capra

  Science, Acceptance, Successful

  "The Tao of Physics". Book by Fritjof Capra, 1975.

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• In most modern instances, interpretation amounts to the philistine refusal to leave the work of art alone. Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, conformable.

  Susan Sontag

  Art, Real, Criticism

  Evergreen Review Dec. 1964

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• Museums are managers of consciousness. They give us an interpretation of history, of how to view the world and locate ourselves in it. They are, if you want to put it in positive terms, great educational institutions. If you want to put it in negative terms, they are propaganda machines.

  Hans Haacke

  Educational, Museums, Views

  "Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre, and Elsewhere". Book by Michael Kimmelman, 1998.

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• What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you'd like it to mean?

  Antonin Scalia

  Motivational, Mean, Halfway

  "Antonin Scalia's legacy: Extraordinary writing, and upholding the rule of law" by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, theweek.com. February 13, 2016.

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• Is your work an interpretation of your understanding of reality, or is it simply a picture of your feelings?

  Millard Sheets

  Reality, Understanding, Feelings

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• The art of interpretation is not to play what is written.

  Pablo Casals

  Art, Play, Written

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

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• The interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own, serves only to make us ever more unknown, ever less free, ever more solitary.

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez

  Reality, Literature, Patterns

  Gabriel García Márquez's Nobel Prize acceptance speech on the role of a writer, www.farnamstreetblog.com. 1982.

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

  Mike Svob

  Ideas, Care, Scene

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• Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does.

  John Berger

  Photography, Drawing, Doe

  John Berger (2015). “About Looking”, p.40, Bloomsbury Publishing

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