Antonin Scalia
Judge
"What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you'd like it to mean?"
Interpretation quotes
Interpretation
121 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Alfred Adler
Psychologist
"It is very obvious that we are not influenced by "facts" but by our interpretation of the facts."
Freeman Tilden
Author
"The chief aim of Interpretation is not instruction, but provocation."
Robert Frost
Poet
"Poetry is what is lost in translation. It is also what is lost in interpretation."
Saint Augustine
Theologian, Philosopher
"We must be on our guard against giving interpretations which are hazardous or opposed to science, and so exposing the word of God to the ridicule of unbelievers."
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Topics related to Interpretation
Browse quotes that often appear alongside interpretation — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Interpretation quotes (page 1 of 7)
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"We see, not change of aspect, but change of interpretation."
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"We have the ability to create choice by altering our interpretations of the world."
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"The text has disappeared under the interpretation."
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"Poetry is something in-between the dream and its interpretation."
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"I always like to leave art and music open to interpretation."
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"What we feel is not based on our experience, but on our INTERPRETATION of experiences."
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"Appeals to the past are among the commonest of strategies in interpretations of the present."
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"How you feel is not the result of what is happening in your life-it is your interpretation of what is happening."
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"Necessity is not a fact; it's an interpretation."
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"No language exists that cannot be misused... Every Interpretation is hypothetical, for it is a mere attempt to read an unfamiliar text."
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"The difference between destruction of the immune system and stimulation of the immune system is an interpretation."
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"The interpretation that makes you ardent and hopeful and active and reverent is the true one."
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"In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred."
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"We need to interpret interpretations more than to interpret things."
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"All interpretation, all psychology, all attempts to make things comprehensible, require the medium of theories, mythologies, and lies."
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"The squalid cash interpretation put on the word success is our national disease."
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"I have the right to interpretation as a dramatist. I research. It's my responsibility to find the research. It's my responsibility to digest it and do the best that I can with it. But at a certain point that responsibility will become an interpretation."
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"Everybody has his own interpretation of a painting he sees."
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"Rational thought is interpretation according to a scheme which we cannot escape."
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"Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation."
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