I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution.

We tend to mistake music for the physical object.

We shouldn’t have to be burdened with all the technicalities that come up from time to time with shrewd, smart lawyers interpreting what the laws or what the Constitution may or may not say.

When I was a young man, Dirac was my hero. He made a breakthrough, a new method of doing physics. He had the courage to simply guess at the form of an equation, the equation we now call the Dirac equation, and to try to interpret it afterwards.

Sometimes I think that there’s a fine line between impressionistic and messy.

The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced – the just demands of peace and security will be met – or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.

When I took over as president, I studied the Constitution, and the more I studied it, the more I realised that it does not prevent the president of India from giving the nation a vision. So when I went and presented this vision in Parliament and in legislative assemblies; everyone welcomed it, irrespective of party affiliations.

There is never a shortage anywhere of lawyers eager to attack the First Amendment, as though it were nothing more than a clause in a lease from a crooked slumlord.

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.

The label ‚liberal‘ or ‚conservative,‘ any – every time I hear that, I think of the great Gilbert and Sullivan song from ‚Iolanthe.‘ It goes, ‚Every gal and every boy that’s born alive is either a little liberal or else a little conservative.‘ What do those labels mean? It depends on whose ox is being gored.

Preachers in pulpits talked about what a great message is in the book. No matter what you do, somebody always imputes meaning into your books.

The Christian’s Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes.

To know the laws is not to memorize their letter but to grasp their full force and meaning.

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

I deplore the need or the use of troops anywhere to get American citizens to obey the orders of constituted courts.

I don’t like allegories.

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.

It is not Kafka’s fault that his wonderful writings have lately turned into a fad, and are read by people who have neither the ability nor the desire to absorb literature.

The best interpreter of the law is custom.

Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creep away; but this opinion was all that he was permitted.

As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.

I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.

It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

When I listen to a song, I don’t say, ‚Oh my gosh, that vocal line she sang was the best thing I ever heard.‘ I’m thinking, ‚That lyric just moves me. That lyric just said what I feel better than I could say it myself.‘

I have been a firm believer in the federal structure of our country as enshrined in the Constitution.

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.

I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.

The frontier between hell and heaven is only the difference between two ways of looking at things.

When I was researching my book ‚The 33 Strategies of War‘, I studied Napoleon extensively and I found myself wanting to ask Napoleon questions about things he did, and if was I interpreting his actions correctly.

I dislike Allegory – the conscious and intentional allegory – yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language.

The difference between a stranger sending you a message that you might be interested in at a very low volume level, no repetition, just sending it to very few people, and that being done as spam – those things get close enough that you want to be careful never to filter out something that’s legitimate.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

Our constitution is a ray of hope: H for harmony, O for Opportunity, P for people’s participation and E for equality.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

The tragedy of America is that it entered all the wars with a consensus in favor of them, but within a defined period, the legitimacy of the war became a major domestic issue, with some people arguing that withdrawal was the only legitimate objective.

When written in Chinese, the word ‚crisis‘ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.

When we wrote the Constitution, the intention was to give the commander in chief the authority how to use the forces when you authorize him to be able to use the forces.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

There’s no one thing that is true. They’re all true.

Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

The Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu.

How can one preach goodness and love to men without at the same time offering them an interpretation of the World that justifies this goodness and this love?

The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.

Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved.

Pressed into service means pressed out of shape.

No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.

As soon as I hear a sound, it always suggests a mood to me.

Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.

People talk to people who perceive nothing, who have open eyes and see nothing; they shall talk to them and receive no answer; they shall adore those who have ears and hear nothing; they shall burn lamps for those who do not see.

Collegiality is crucial to the success of our mission. We could not do the job the Constitution assigns to us if we didn’t – to use one of Justice Antonin Scalia’s favorite expressions – ‚Get over it!‘

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.

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