Ambiguity Quotes - Page 6

• It stung this new rejection, but it was also a relief to put an end to the ambiguity and incertitude. I had been deceiving myself the day I decided I could master the art of detachment, or maybe the mistake was to allow things to go on in that vein for as long as they had.

  Catherine Sanderson

  Art, Mistake, Long

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• I think in society and especially in movies and media we're fed this idea that there's the one or the right person. I think it brings great ambiguity and confusion for people.

  Kether Donohue

  Thinking, Media, Ideas

  "Kether Donohue explains Lindsay's violent outburst on You're The Worst". Interview with Esther Zuckerman, www.avclub.com. August 31, 2016.

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• The eternal ambiguity of human motives and memory.

  Ben Brantley

  Memories, Motive, Humans

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• Whether it's movies or television that I've directed, or characters that I've played, I'm just always fascinated by the moral ambiguity inherent in life.

  Tony Goldwyn

  Character, Television, Moral

  "Tony Goldwyn Talks SCANDAL, Directing JUSTIFIED and GREY’S ANATOMY, and a Drama He’s Developing". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. April 26, 2012.

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• Even though I want to expand the number of ways in which skilful ironic play happens, I suspect I'm probably guilty of the same shortcoming - and I hope that, one of these days, someone will claim that my book, while it goes in a salutary expansive direction, doesn't go far enough, that there are assumptions I make that show I've missed aspects of Mann's irony and ambiguity.

  Philip Kitcher

  Book, Play, Numbers

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• Only the human brain can deliberately change perceptions, change patterns, invent concepts and tolerate ambiguity.

  Edward de Bono

  Thinking, Perception, Brain

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• Language is, in other words, not necessary, but voluntary. If it were necessary, it would have stayed simple; it would not agitate our hearts with ever-present loveliness and ever-cresting ambiguity; it would not dream, on its long white bones, of turning into song.

  Mary Oliver

  Dream, Song, Heart

  Mary Oliver (1998). “West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems”, p.17, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Which path do you intend to take, Nell?' said the Constable, sounding very interested. 'Conformity or rebellion?' Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded - they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity.

  Neal Stephenson

  Simple, People, Way

  Neal Stephenson (2003). “The Diamond Age”, p.356, Spectra

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• If you have the personalities down, you understand them and identify with them; you can stick them in any situation and have a pretty good idea of how they're going to respond. Then it's just a matter of sanding and polishing up the jokes. But if you've got more ambiguous characters or stock stereotypes, the plastic comes through and they don't work as well. These two characters clicked for me almost immediately and I feel very comfortable working with them.

  Bill Watterson

  Character, Ideas, Two

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• The aspirations of democracy are based on the notion of an informed citizenry, capable of making wise decisions. The choices we are asked to make become increasingly complex. They require the longer-term thinking and greater tolerance for ambiguity that science fosters. The new economy is predicated on a continuous pipeline of scientific and technological innovation. It can not exist without workers and consumers who are mathematically and scientifically literate.

  Ann Druyan

  Wise, Thinking, Decision

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• Some, while deploring animal abuses, on the same breath approve 'benefits to humans from certain animal abuses'! Who would criticize the Jewish holocaust or Black slavery, and YET praise the benefits to Germans or Whites??? This convenient ambiguity at the expense of animals is unacceptable!!!

  Adela Popescu

  Animal, Holocaust, Black

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• There appear to be many people who chose to go crazy (or become alcoholics, addicts, criminals, suicides) rather than have to bear the pain and ambiguity of a life situation that they have decided that they cannot stand. (98)

  Sheldon B. Kopp

  Suicide, Pain, Crazy

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• It is my secrecy which makes you unhappy, my evasions, my silences. And so I have found a solution. Whenever you get desperate with my mysteries, my ambiguities, here is a set of Chinese puzzle boxes. You have always said that I was myself a Chinese puzzle box. When you are in the mood and I baffle your love of confidences, your love of openness, your love of sharing experiences, then open one of the boxes. And in it you will find a story, a story about me and my life. Do you like this idea? Do you think it will help us to live together?

  Anais Nin

  Thinking, Ideas, Silence

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• ...I am much better now at ambiguities.

  Saul Bellow

  Better Now

  Saul Bellow (1976). “Herzog”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• The modern world needs people with a complex identity who are intellectually autonomous and prepared to cope with uncertainty; who are able to tolerate ambiguity and not be driven by fear into a rigid, single-solution approach to problems, who are rational, foresightful and who look for facts; who can draw inferences and can control their behavior in the light of foreseen consequences, who are altruistic and enjoy doing for others, and who understand social forces and trends.

  Robert J. Havighurst

  Light, People, Identity

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• Relaxing with something as familiar as loneliness is good discipline for realizing the profundity of the unresolved moments of our lives. We are cheating ourselves when we run away from the ambiguity of loneliness.....Rather than persecuting yourself or feeling that something terribly wrong is happening, right there in the moment of sadness and longing, could you relax and touch the limitless space of the human heart?

  Pema Chodron

  Running, Cheating, Loneliness

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• Beware of the truth, gentle Sister. Although much sought after, truth can be dangerous to the seeker. Myths and reassuring lies are much easier to find and believe. If you find a truth, even a temporary one, it can demand that you make painful changes. Conceal your truths within words. Natural ambiguity will protect you then.

  Frank Herbert

  Lying, Believe, Demand

  Frank Herbert (1984). “God Emperor of Dune”

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• All the scientist creates in a fact is the language in which he enunciates it. If he predicts a fact, he will employ this language, and for all those who can speak and understand it, his prediction is free from ambiguity. Moreover, this prediction once made, it evidently does not depend upon him whether it is fulfilled or not.

  Henri Poincare

  Freedom, Science, Understanding

  Henri Poincare (2012). “The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare”, p.547, Modern Library

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• You will find ambiguity a great ally on your road to power. Give a sign of Slytherin on one day, and contradict it with a sign of Gryffindor the next; and the Slytherins will be enabled to believe what they wish, while the Gryffindors argue themselves into supporting you as well. So long as there is uncertainty, people can believe whatever seems to be to their own advantage. And so long as you appear strong, so long as you appear to be winning, their instincts will tell them that their advantage lies with you. Walk always in the shadow, and light and darkness both will follow.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Strong, Lying, Believe

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• To put it simply, we need to keep the arts in education because they instill in students the habits of mind that last a lifetime: critical analysis skills, the ability to deal with ambiguity and to solve problems, perseverance and a drive for excellence. Moreover, the creative skills children develop through the arts carry them toward new ideas, new experiences, and new challenges, not to mention personal satisfaction. This is the intrinsic value of the arts, and it cannot be overestimated.

  Rod Paige

  Perseverance, Art, Children

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• Noise is the typographical error and the poorly designed page...Ambiguity is noise. Redundancy is noise. Misuse of words is noise. Vagueness is noise. Jargon is noise.

  William Zinsser

  Errors, Marketing, Vagueness

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• Audacity isn't the absence of uncertainty and ambiguity. Audacity is believing that God's promise is bigger than my 'perhaps'

  Steven Furtick

  Believe, Promise, Audacity

  Steven Furtick (2013). “Sun Stand Still Devotional: A Forty-Day Experience to Activate Your Faith”, p.32, Multnomah

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• Fail your way forward. Recognize that Ready, fire, aim is superior to ready, aim, aim, aim. Straightforward trial and error produces better results than endless vacillating. If you're afraid to make decisions and act on them in the face of ambiguity and uncertainty, get a job. Failure's lessons are essential to success.

  Steve Pavlina

  Jobs, Business, Fire

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• I am in the utmost perplexity, yand have wished a hundred times, that if there is a A God, nature would manifest him without ambiguity, and that if there is not, every imaginary sign of his existence might vanish : in short, let nature speak distinctly, or be totally silent, and I shall know what course to take.

  Blaise Pascal

  Nature, Might, Speak

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• Beauty is self-defined, perceived and understood without ambiguity. It's the stuff that lies under the skins of our individual existences.

  Terence McKenna

  Life, Lying, Self

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