meaning quotes

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

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

In a certain way, it’s the sound of the words, the inflection and the way the song is sung and the way it fits the melody and the way the syllables are on the tongue that has as much of the meaning as the actual, literal words.

Life is our dictionary.

If any philosopher had been asked for a definition of infinity, he might have produced some unintelligible rigmarole, but he would certainly not have been able to give a definition that had any meaning at all.

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

I don’t think of poetry as a ‚rational‘ activity but as an aural one. My poems usually begin with words or phrases which appeal more because of their sound than their meaning, and the movement and phrasing of a poem are very important to me.

It’s in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. It’s not in happiness. It’s not in impulsive pleasure.

Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.

The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.

Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

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

There’s place and means for every man alive.

Things in themselves have no life in them. A car can’t comfort or encourage you. A house means nothing if there’s no life and love inside.

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.

As Bromberger observed, rules are understood to be elements of the computational systems that determine the sound and meaning of the infinite array of expressions of a language; the information so derived is accessed by other systems in language use.

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

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

Myths can’t be translated as they did in their ancient soil. We can only find our own meaning in our own time.

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.

Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.

Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?

Beauty has as many meanings as man has moods. Beauty is the symbol of symbols. Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing. When it shows us itself, it shows us the whole fiery-coloured world.

People assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me, that has never been the case. There are very few songs that I can think of where I remember the words.

No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point.

Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that’s what the music is about.

If particulars are to have meaning, there must be universals.

My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning.

In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design.

Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.

Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.

What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.

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.

It’s a rather rude gesture, but at least it’s clear what you mean.

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

Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.

We might as well die as to go on living like this.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them.

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.

Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.

What the devil is the point of surviving, going on living, when it’s a drag? But you see, that’s what people do.

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.

Distance does not decide who is your brother and who is not. The church is going to have to become the conscience of the free market if it’s to have any meaning in this world – and stop being its apologist.

Why should poetry have to make sense?