Quotes about Interpretation

Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else.

I should have more faith. I ought to know by this time that when a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.

The writer] can easily foresee his fate ... in an age when an author who wants to have readers must take care to write in such a way that the book can easily be perused during an afternoon nap ....

Every religion, every philosophy, every individual outlook on life tells a story of reality.

It is easier to learn to interpret dreams if you have a reason to use them for something constructive. You apply your dream insights to making constructive changes in your life.

Where more is meant than meets the ear.

Life is not about what we see, it is about the way it goes.

One great function of Bible verses: To keep us from drawing false inferences from other Bible verses.

We must train our people that it is not irreverent to see difficulties in the biblical text and to think hard about how they can be resolved.

The inner spaces that a good story lets us enter are the old apartments of religion.

The student of the word should not make his opinions a center around which truth is to revolve. He should not search for the purpose of finding texts of Scripture that he can construe to prove his theories, for this is wresting the Scriptures to his own destruction.

The student of the word should not make his opinions a center around which truth is to revolve. He should not search for the purpose of finding texts of Scripture that he can construe to prove his theories, for this is wresting the Scriptures to his own destruction.