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Ambiguous Quotes

Quotes tagged as "ambiguous" Showing 1-27 of 27
Gilda Radner
“The more I protested about this ambiguity, the more Joanna pointed out to me that it was both a terrible and wonderful part of life: terrible because you can't count on anything for sure—like certain good health and no possibility of cancer; wonderful because no human being knows when another is going to die—no doctor can absolutely predict the outcome of a disease. The only thing that is certain is change. Joanna calls all of this 'delicious ambiguity.' 'Couldn't there be comfort and freedom in no one knowing the outcome of anything and all things being possible?' she asked. Was I convinced? Not completely. I still wanted to believe in magic thinking. But I was intrigued.”
Gilda Radner, It's Always Something

Sigmund Freud
“In general we are reminded that the word heimlich is not unambiguous, but belongs to two sets of ideas, which, without being contradictory, are yet very different: on the one hand it means what is familiar and agreeable, and on the other, what is concealed and kept out of sight. Unheimlich is customarily used, we are told, as the contrary only of the first signification of heimlich, and not of the second. [...] On the other hand, we notice that Schelling says something which throws quite a new light on the concept of the Unheimlich, for which we were certainly not prepared. According to him, everything is unheimlich that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light.”
Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny

“We're almost a whole shadow now from far away.”
Emily Skaja, Brute: Poems

Steven Millhauser
“He sank back into his black-and-white world, his immobile world of inanimate drawings that had been granted the secret of motion, his death-world with its hidden gift of life. But that life was a deeply ambiguous life, a conjurer's trick, a crafty illusion based on an accidental property of the retina, which retained an image for a fraction of a second after the image was no longer present. On this frail fact was erected the entire structure of the cinema, that colossal confidence game. The animated cartoon was a far more honest expression of the cinematic illusion than the so-called realistic film, because the cartoon reveled in its own illusory nature, exulted in the impossible--indeed it claimed the impossible as its own, exalted it as its own highest end, found in impossibility, in the negation of the actual, its profoundest reason for being. The animated cartoon was nothing but the poetry of the impossible--therein lay its exhilaration and its secret melancholy. For this willful violation of the actual, while it was an intoxicating release from the constriction of things, was at the same time nothing but a delusion, an attempt to outwit mortality. As such it was doomed to failure. And yet it was desperately important to smash through the constriction of the actual, to unhinge the universe and let the impossible stream in, because otherwise--well, otherwise the world was nothing but an editorial cartoon.”
Steven Millhauser, Little Kingdoms

Helen Oyeyemi
“As always, the soucouyant seemed more lonely than bad. Maybe that was her trick, her ability to make it so you couldn't decide if she was a monster.”
Helen Oyeyemi, White Is for Witching

“Fancy words and ambiguous notions make you feel like your argument is valid but it exudes multiple logical fallacies, which make you continue to search for a valid point.”
Jeffrey G. Duarte

Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“Unlike meaning, the truth always survives translation.”
Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Iris Murdoch
“So art becomes not communication but mystification.”
Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince

Iris Murdoch
“I will not attempt to describe how I got through the next few days. There are desolations of the spirit which can only be hinted at. I sat there huge-eyed in the wreck of myself.”
Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince

Iris Murdoch
“Good-bye to the past, with its mysteries which would never be fully unfolded.”
Iris Murdoch, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine

Henry James
“I can't make out what you're up to . . . You strike me as having mysterious purposes â€� vast designs.”
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

Roger Spitz
“What is our UN-VICE in the context of Disruption 3.0?
To sum up, UN-VICE is an updated way of capturing the state of the world. Framing the dynamics of systemic disruption as UNknown, Volatile, Intersecting, Complex, Exponential enables an empowering response. We are not helpless victims unable to make decisions. With UN-VICE, we have the power to shape our own futures.

KEY POINTS: OUR UN-VICE ACRONYM

- UNknown: Uncertainty becomes our comfort zone. Recognize you can’t know anything perfectly and many decisions are based on assumptions. Increased uncertainty lowers the value of advice and requires increased self-reliance. Learn how to respond regardless of the lack of precedents.

- Volatile: Harness change for gain. Our world, and change itself, is evolving faster than ever before. Volatility is not new; we simply can’t ignore its impact. In volatility, we see the shifting speed and texture of the changing environment.

- Intersecting: Everything connects to everything else. The broader our lens, the greater the insights gained from realizing how boundaries are disappearing.

- Complex: Notice emergent properties and adapt. In complex environments, inputs do not map clearly to outputs. Practitioners must acknowledge emergent properties and reconcile the immediate with the indefinite. Such systems require critical thinking, experimentation, and judgment. Evaluate emerging issues, build resiliency, and learn to adapt to expanding complexity.

- Exponential: Pay attention to nonlinear types of change that increase in growth rate. Notice rapid acceleration of seemingly small shifts. Monitoring early on will mean fewer surprises.”
Roger Spitz, Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World

Iris Murdoch
“What follows is ambiguous and sometimes tortuously told. Man's searchings and his strugglings are ambiguous and vowed to hidden ways. Those who live by that dark light will understand.”
Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince

Joy Harjo
“You took me once
to an older part of earth
I'd never seen�
where monsters were born
and killed.
They sacrificed everything
and nothing
for a taste of this
life.”
Joy Harjo, She Had Some Horses

Iris Murdoch
“How can one discover what he feels?"

"I thought he might perhaps behave � quite differently with you?"

"No, no. We seem to know each other well but I think that's just because I parade my feelings. He's affectionate, detached, passive, absolutely passive."

"He's never told you about that place?"

"He's never talked about himself at all.”
Iris Murdoch, The Nice and the Good

Tom Holt
“Most thoughtful,"...[he said] politely. This cheerfulness was ambiguous, Had she determined to ignore ...[the] coup entirely--an established tactic, most irritating to the innovator but hard to sustain over long periods of time--or had she already evolved her counter-strategy?”
Tom Holt, Lucia Triumphant

Suzanne Brøgger
“Det var liksom helt riktig at han ikke hadde spurt. At han bare hadde tatt sjansen og at han nÃ¥ ville fÃ¥ blod pÃ¥ sin eggeskallfargede silkesofa. Den slags overraskelser fÃ¥r bare de helt selvtilfredse og autistiske.”
Suzanne Brøgger, Creme fraiche

Deborah Landau
“welcome to the future

I have come into the aware
where the gilt edges are”
Deborah Landau, The Last Usable Hour

Mary Szybist
“I carried you a long way

into my mirror, believing you would carry me

back out.”
Mary Szybist, Incarnadine: Poems

Marianne Boruch
“Fate behind the pillars
where something fell.”
Marianne Boruch, Cadaver, Speak

“Sometimes the same position gets boring.”
Claudia Arana

“In the depth of thoughts and reaches of life.
That's where you can find me.”
Mohammed Anousheh

“What's the deal that turn people and me into heartless monster?
The Truth of world? (which I assume that is sad)
Not getting proper thinking education?
Bad charismatic?
Biases and ignorance?
Them?
Me?
None of them?
Maybe It's irrelevant? Who said that I'm turning into monster.
No I'm not. I'm just thinking based on evidence & my own biases.
You know... It gets complicated with how we represent ourselves and.”
Mohammad Anousheh

“In the depth of thoughts and reaches of life.
That's where you can find me.”
Mohammad Anousheh

Holly Smale
“We even consider going into the church, and then change our minds because they've altered their sign to say:
DON'T LET WORRIES KILL YOU.
LET THE CHURCH HELP.
Frankly, that's a little too ambiguous for my liking.”
Holly Smale, Picture Perfect