Interpretation Quotes - Page 30

• The Interpretation of the Laws of Nature in a Common-wealth, dependeth not on the books of Moral Philosophy. The Authority of writers, without the Authority of the Commonwealth, maketh not their opinions Law, be they never so true.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Philosophy, Book, Law

  "Leviathan". Book by Thomas Hobbes. The Second Part, Chapter 26, 1651.

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• The Text is plural. Which is not simply to say that it has several meanings, but that it accomplishes the very plural of meaning: an irreducible (and not merely an acceptable) plural. The Text is not a co-existence of meanings but a passage, an overcrossing; thus it answers not to an interpretation, even a liberal one, but to an explosion, a dissemination.

  Roland Barthes

  Answers, Explosions, Existence

  "From Work to Text". Book by Roland Barthes. Proposition 4, 1971.

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• The discovery of radioactivity created a momentary chaos in chemistry and physics; but it soon led to a fuller interpretation of the old ideas. It dispersed many difficulties, harmonized many discords, and yea, more! It shewed the substance of Universe as a simplicity of Light and Life, manners to compose atoms, themselves capable of deeper self-realization through fresh complexities and organizations, each with its own peculiar powers and pleasures, each pursuing its path through the world where all things are possible.

  Aleister Crowley

  Organization, Ideas, Light

  "Magick Book IV: Liber ABA". Book by Aleister Crowley. Appendix VI: A few principal rituals - Liber Reguli, 1936.

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• Shake yourself free from the manikin you create out of a false interpretation of what you do and what you feel, and you'll at once see that the manikin you make yourself is nothing at all like what you really are or what you really can be!

  Luigi Pirandello

  Shakes, Feels

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• Science fiction that's just about people wandering around in space ships shooting each other with ray guns is very dull. I like it when it enables you to do fairly radical reinterpretations of human experience, just to show all the different interpretations that can be put on apparently fairly simple and commonplace events. That I find fun.

  Douglas Adams

  Fun, Gun, Simple

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• To require conformity in the appreciation of sentiments or the interpretation of language, or uniformity of thought, feeling, or action, is a fundamental error in human legislation -- a madness which would be only equaled by requiring all men to possess the same countenance, the same voice or the same stature.

  Josiah Warren

  Appreciation, Men, Errors

  Josiah Warren (1849). “Equitable Commerce: A New Development of Principles for the Harmoneous Adjustment and Regulation of the Pecuniary,intellectual,and Moral Intercourse of Mankind,proposed as Elements of New Society”, p.5

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• We must nevertheless present all possible interpretations for each observation, so that competing theories can be formulated and defended. In science, as elsewhere, intellectual inertia, the fashions of the moment, the weight of institutions, and authoritarianism are always to be feared. Heresies play an essential role by keeping our minds argumentative and alert.

  Hubert Reeves

  Fashion, Play, Intellectual

  "Atoms of Silence: an Exploration of Cosmic Evolution". Book by Hubert Reeves, 1984.

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• Paradoxically, the simpler poetry is, the more difficult it becomes for a critic to discuss intelligently. Trained to explicate, the critic often loses the ability to evaluate literature outside the critical act. A work is good only in proportion to the richness and complexity of interpretations it provokes.

  Dana Gioia

  Literature, Proportion, Difficult

  Dana Gioia (2002). “Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture”, Graywolf Pr

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• Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggests that Can't Buy Me Love is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That's going too far.

  Paul McCartney

  Love Is, Thinking, Lines

  "The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics". Book by The Beatles, 1969.

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• The concept of justice I take to be defined, then, by the role of its principles in assigning rights and duties and in defining the appropriate division of social advantages. A conception of justice is an interpretation of this role.

  John Rawls

  Rights, Justice, Principles

  John Rawls (2009). “A Theory of Justice”, p.9, Harvard University Press

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• Art that means anything in the life of a community must bear some relation to current interpretations of the mystery of the universe. Our rigid separation of the humanities and the sciences has temporarily left our art stranded or stammering and incoherent. Both art and science ought to be blended in our early education of our children's emotions and powers of observation, and that harmony carried forward in later education.

  Dora Russell

  Art, Children, Mean

  "The Right to Be Happy". Book by Dora Russell, ch. v, p. 235, 1927.

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• But art not only exploits the variety of appearances, it also affirms the validity of individual outlook and thereby admits a further dimension of variety. Since the shapes of art do not primarily bear witness to the objective nature of the things for which they stand, they can reflect individual interpretation and invention.

  Rudolf Arnheim

  Art, Shapes, Bears

  Rudolf Arnheim (2004). “Visual Thinking”, p.300, Univ of California Press

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• Authoritative interpretations of the First Amendment guarantees have consistently refused to recognize an exception for any test of truth whether administered by judges, juries, or administrative officials and especially one that puts the burden of proving truth on the speaker.

  William J. Brennan

  Judging, Freedom Of Speech, Guarantees

  "New York Times Co. v. Sullivan". 1964.

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• Philo of Alexandria introduced in the first century what has been described as the 'Hellenizing of the Old Testament,' or the allegorical method of exegesis. By this, as Erdmann observes, the Bible narrative was found to contain a deeper, and particularly an allegorical interpretation, in addition to its literal interpretation; this was not conscious disingenuousness but a natural mode of amalgamating the Greek philosophic with the Hebraic doctrines.

  Philo

  Greek, Alexandria, Firsts

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• The interpretation of a case is corroborated only by the successful continuation of a self-formative process, that is by the completion of self-reflection, and not in any unmistakable way by what the patient says or how he behaves.

  Jurgen Habermas

  Successful, Reflection, Self

  "Knowledge and Human Interests". Book by Jürgen Habermas, 1971.

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• The Muslim world, with its history and cultures, and indeed its different interpretations of Islam, is still little known in the West. The two worlds, Muslim and non-Muslim, Eastern and Western, must, as a matter of urgency, make a real effort to get to know one another, for I fear that what we have is not a clash of civilisations, but a clash of ignorance on both sides.

  Aga Khan IV

  Real, Ignorance, Two

  Speech at the "Musée-Musées" Round Table Louvre Museum, www.akdn.org. October 17, 2007.

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• My voice in combination with the harp - which, by the way, I use because I've played it my entire life, not to make some statement about the harp - somehow has ... coloured people's interpretations of the music and projected an idea of childlike or fairytale quality or innocence. Which sometimes prevents people from listening to the songs the way I would like them to be listened to.

  Joanna Newsom

  Song, Ideas, Voice

  Sydney Morning Herald, October 10, 2005.

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• I came into history from a primary concern with mathematics and science. This has been a tremendous help to me as a person and as a historian, although it must be admitted it has served to make my historical interpretations less conventional than may be acceptable of many of my colleagues in the field.

  Carroll Quigley

  Historical, May, Fields

  Carroll Quigley (1979). “The evolution of civilizations: an introduction to historical analysis”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• If I have taken the word, by any reason, it has been because I think it is grave to kill men, under the pretext that they are mistaken on the interpretation of some point, for we know that even the chosen ones are not exempt from sometimes being wrong.

  Michael Servetus

  Taken, Men, Thinking

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• Ideally there is a type of continuum which flows from life through the artist's sensibility and his materials... the concreteness of the object and its own life , through the spectator, with his expectations, interpretations, back into life.

  Douglas Portway

  Artist, Expectations, Flow

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• The environment becomes inspiration. My response to it becomes idea. And idea becomes purpose and action through interpretation and painting.

  Gerald Brommer

  Inspiration, Ideas, Purpose

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• Religion is, by definition, interpretation; and by definition, all interpretations are valid. However, some interpretations are more reasonable than others.

  Reza Aslan

  Religion, Definitions, Reasonable

  Reza Aslan (2008). “No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam”, p.19, Random House

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• The great extension of our experience in recent years has brought light to the insufficiency of our simple mechanical conceptions and, as a consequence, has shaken the foundation on which the customary interpretation of observation was based.

  Niels Bohr

  Simple, Light, Years

  Niels Bohr (1934). “Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature: Four Essays”, p.2, CUP Archive

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• I feel like great TED Talks are ones that are a little bit subject to interpretation, that do provoke further conversation - and potentially controversy.

  Damon Lindelof

  Littles, Ted Talks, Conversation

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• Unity is the only way in which the people of this country can overthrow the fascists, communists, capitalists, and all the other assholes who claim running a representative government is so difficult. The emphasis has been taken from the Bill of Rights and placed on the type of interpretation of the Constitution that best suits the people in power.

  William Powell

  Running, Country, Taken

  "The Anarchist Cookbook". Book by William Powell, Chapter Three: "Natural, Nonlethal, and Lethal Weapons", p. 78, 1971.

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