40 Interpretation Quotes

Interpretation means to transcribe in a more appreciable manner, what is unclear.

Interpretation helps the audience to have a clear picture of what the speaker or writer says. More so, it simplifies communication where problems could be encountered while interacting.

As some people do opine, interpretation is not limited to translating one language to the other. The language being spoken by itself may not be understood enough by the audience. Hence, there's the need for interpretation to give a clear direction to an audience about where the speaker or writer is driving them towards.

There is a need for different interpretations of a fact because a personal interpretation of a person on it may not be sound enough to get the meaning of a complex system of words and sayings. Many stories are created with an intention and misinterpretation can lead to confusion. To move past such issues, we need to learn the skill of interpreting.

These interpretation quotes are very popular among people. They are widely used to set the pace when interpretation is required.

"All interpretations of history are propaganda for one idea or another."

- Selma Dabbagh

"An interpretation exists because of what we find between the notes."

- Renee Fleming

"It is our interpretation of the past, our limiting beliefs, and our undigested pain that stop us from being able to move forward with clear direction."

- Debbie Ford

"No man is hurt but by himself. ...Literally by how he interprets what happens to him. If he focuses on how it could have been better, he will be hurt. If he focuses on how it could have been worse, he will be happy. The same is true for women too."

- Diogenes

"Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art."

- Susan Sontag

"All Knowledge that is about Human Society, and not about the natural world is historical knowledge, and therefore rests upon judgment and interpretation. This is not to say that facts or data are nonexistent, but that facts get their importance from what is made of them in interpretation… for interpretations depend very much on who the interpreter is, who he or she is addressing, what his or her purpose is, at what historical moment the interpretation takes place."

-Edward Said

"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived, and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

- John F. Kennedy

"The interpretation that makes you ardent and hopeful and active and reverent is the true one."

- Rumi

"For me, the different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree. Therefore, they are equally true, though being received and interpreted through human instruments equally imperfect."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"It is always possible to argue against an interpretation, to confront interpretations, to arbitrate between them and to seek for an agreement, even if this agreement remains beyond our reach."

- Paul Ricoeur

"A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics."

- Fred Hoyle

"The process of understanding nature as well as the happiness that man feels in understanding- that is, in the conscious realization of new knowledge- seems thus to be based on a correspondence, a ''matching'' of inner images pre-existent in the human psyche with external objects and their behavior. This interpretation of scientific knowledge, of course, goes back to Plato and is, as we shall see, advocated very clearly by Kepler."

- Wolfgang Pauli

The following are selected pure interpretation quotes from great minds.

"Without the interpretation of the universe by man to the glory of God the whole world would be meaningless."

- Cornelius Van Til

"The supply of interpretations, like that of advice, greatly exceeds the need for them."

- Harry Stack Sullivan

"The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing."

- Joshua Bell

"But, I don't think any arranger should ever write a drum part for a drummer because if a drummer can't create his own Interpretation of the chart and he plays everything that's written, he becomes mechanical; he has no freedom."

- Buddy Rich

"The interpretation of facts in a certain way stimulates other scientists` thoughts."

- Robert Barany

"Never trust the translation or interpretation of something without first trusting its interpreter."

- Suzy Kassem

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."

- Maya Angelou.

"Of course, I'll hurt you. Of course, you’ll hurt me. Of course, we will hurt each other. But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring means accepting the risk of winter. To become present means accepting the risk of absence."

-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The below interpretation quotes are specifically compiled to proffer solution when a concept has multiple perspectives.

"Our interpretations of subjects are clouded by our intellects."

- Carl Purcell

"The interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own, serves only to make us ever more unknown, ever less free, ever more solitary."

- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"The truest interpretations are those with the best justification."

- Bernard Ramm

"Interpretation is the evidence of growth and knowledge, the latter through sorrow - that great teacher."

- Eleanora Duse

"Interpretations, criticisms, diagnoses, and judgments of others are actually alienated expressions of our unmet needs."

- Marshall B. Rosenberg

"The art of interpretation is not to play what is written."

- Pablo Casals

"The chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation."

- Freeman Tilden

"All interpretation, all psychology, all attempts to make things comprehensible, require the medium of theories, mythologies, and lies."

- Hermann Hesse

"The interpretation of dreams is a great art."

- Paracelsus

"We doubt that any facts actually exist. We only have observations and interpretations. Most of the interpretations remain questionable."

- Peter J. Carroll

"It is not acceptable that election winners interpret history. History should be left to historians who have a difficult task. They should try to avoid a one-sided or personal interpretation of history. Furthermore, some collective factors (such as national enthusiasm) may influence objectivity that is crucial for the interpretation of historical events."

-Eraldo Banovac

The below quotes are for advancing the thought process. Especially, when it is time to make an interpretation.

"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

"The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind."

- Sigmund Freud

"A false interpretation of Scripture causes that the gospel of the Lord becomes the gospel of man, or, which is worse, of the devil."

- St. Jerome

"The old-style of interpretation was insistent but respectful; it erected another meaning on top of the literal one. The modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs `behind` the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one." - Susan Sontag

"One wrong word, or misinterpreted word, can change the meaning of an entire sentence and start a war. And one right word, or one kind word, can grant you the heavens and open doors."

-Suzy Kassem

"The aim of interpretation is not agreement but understanding."

- Donald Davidson

"Through interpretation, understanding; through understanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection."

- Freeman Tilden

"What is the nature of the bridge between the sense perceptions and the concepts?"

-Wolfgang Pauli

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

- Friedrich Nietzsche