Clarification Quotes

• The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom... in a clarification of life - not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.

  Robert Frost

  Confusion, Delight, Ends

  Collected Poems preface (1939)

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• Every clarification breeds new questions.

  Arthur Bloch

  Questioning

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• The clarification of visual forms and their organization in integrated patterns as well as the attribution of such forms to suitable objects is one of the most effective training grounds of the young mind.

  Rudolf Arnheim

  Education, Organization, Training

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• Our ability to make a decision about the declaration is hampered by the British government being reluctant to give us the clarification which we require.

  Martin McGuinness

  Government, Giving, Decision

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• No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite.

  David Hilbert

  Men, Ideas, Needs

  "Über das Unendliche" ["On the Infinite"] (1925) address to der Westfälischen Mathematischen Gesellschaft in honour to the memory of Karl Weierstrass, as quoted in "Number The Language of Science" by Tobias Dantzig, 1930.

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• Choice of aim is clearly a matter of clarification of values, especially on the choice between possible options.

  W. Edwards Deming

  Choices, Matter, Aim

  "The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education". Book by W. Edwards Deming, 1993.

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• Progress consists only in the greater clarification of answers to the basic questions of life.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Progress, Answers, Greater

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• Sanity, soundness, and sincerity, of which gleams and strains can still be found in the human brain under powerful microscopes, flourish only in a culture of clarification, which is now becoming harder and harder to detect with the naked eye.

  James Thurber

  Powerful, Eye, Brain

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• "Playing" the resources of characterology for the sake of clarification and insight into the structures of actual existence is many times more daunting than playing a piano; it requires the thinking of chords of thoughts, not just isolated simplisms or abstracta; it demands the shaping or encompassing of morphological modes of intelligence that can comprehend gestalten, syndromes, historical and civilizational patterns in which it is not the particulars but their interactive significance (as an ensemble of actualities or principles) that is vital.

  Kenny Smith

  Philosophy, Thinking, Piano

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• Another reason for the increased self-centeredness of an adolescent is her susceptibility to humiliation. This brazen, defiant creature is also something tender, raw, thin-skinned, poignantly vulnerable. Her entire sense of personal worth can be shattered by a frown. An innocuous clarification of facts can be heard as a monumental criticism.

  Louise J. Kaplan

  Self, Criticism, Centeredness

  Louise J. Kaplan (1995). “Adolescence: The Farewell to Childhood”, Touchstone Books

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• One of the main tasks of adolescence is to achieve an identity--not necessarily a knowledge of who we are, but a clarification ofthe range of what we might become, a set of self-references by which we can make sense of our responses, and justify our decisions and goals.

  Terri E Apter

  Self, Goal, Decision

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• It is management's job to direct the efforts of all components toward the aim of the system. The first step is clarification: everyone in the organization must understand the aim of the system, and how to direct his efforts toward it. Everyone must understand the damage and loss to the whole organization from a team that seeks to become a selfish, independent, profit center.

  W. Edwards Deming

  Jobs, Selfish, Team

  "The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education". Book by W. Edwards Deming, 1993.

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• A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

  Robert Frost

  Inspiration, Poetry, Delight

  Collected Poems preface (1939)

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• Rationalism is an adventure in the clarification of thought.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Adventure, Rationalism

  Alfred North Whitehead (2010). “Process and Reality”, p.9, Simon and Schuster

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• The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thought.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Logical, Objects

  Ludwig Wittgenstein (2014). “The Tractatus According to Its Own Form”, p.76, Lulu.com

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• Myths that need clarification: "No matter how many times you see the Grand canyon, you are still emotionally moved to tears." False. It depends on how many children the out-of-towners brought with them who kicked the back of your seat from Phoenix to Flagstaff and got their gum caught in your hair.

  Erma Bombeck

  Children, Hair, Phoenix

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• One group of scholars or persons, most of them politically motivated, say the Holocaust occurred. Then there is the group of scholars who represent the opposite position and have therefore been imprisoned for the most part. Hence, an impartial group has to come together to investigate and to render an opinion on this very important subject, because the clarification of this issue will contribute to the solution of global problems.

  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Opposites, Issues, Holocaust

  "We Are Determined". SPIEGEL Interview, www.spiegel.de. May 30, 2006.

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• A group of four cardinals wrote to [Pope] Francis accusing him of sowing confusion on important moral issues, and they asked for clarifications. He did not reply. And one of the signatories, the American Cardinal Raymond Burke, said if the pope does not clarify, he will proceed with what he called a formal correction of the pope after Christmas.

  Sylvia Poggioli

  Issues, Confusion, Important

  Source: www.npr.org

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• Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Doctrine

  Ludwig Wittgenstein, David Francis Pears, Brian McGuinness (2001). “Tractatus Logico-philosophicus”, p.29, Psychology Press

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• Language is never fully trustworthy, but when it comes to eating animals, words are as often used to misdirect and camouflage as they are to communicate. Some words, like veal, help us forget what we are actually talking about. Some, like free-range, can mislead those whose consciences seek clarification. Some, like happy, mean the opposite of what they would seem. And some, like natural, mean next to nothing.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  Mean, Animal, Talking

  "Eating Animals". Book by Jonathan Safran Foer, November 2, 2009.

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• When people say do you believe in God? what do they mean by it? Do I believe in some spiritual force in the world? In a way, yes. People have thoughts, emotions. If you want to call that a spiritual force, okay. But unless there's some clarification of what we're supposed to believe in or disbelieve in, I can't answer.

  Noam Chomsky

  Spiritual, Believe, Mean

  Source: chomsky.info

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• Cellular pathology is not an end if one cannot see any alteration in the cell. Chemistry brings the clarification of living processes nearer than does anatomy. Each anatomical change must have been preceded by a chemical one.

  Rudolf Virchow

  Cells, Doe, Chemistry

  "The Scientific Basis of Medicine Annual Reviews", Vol. 1969, Athlone Press, quoting "Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift", Coper, H., Herken, H. (1963), 1969.

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• This is reverent. This is Star Wars, damn it. You don't screw around with it. The things that were improv'd or added that developed on set weren't huge departures as far as storyline or anything like that goes. They just were clarifications in character or, at the best moments, they spoke to the moment in the story in a way that, at least with Kaytoo, tended to be funny.

  Alan Tudyk

  Stars, War, Character

  "Alan Tudyk on making Moana's chicken noises and his fear of becoming Rogue One's Jar Jar". Interview with Esther Zuckerman, film.avclub.com. December 7, 2016.

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• Poetry's work is the clarification and magnification of being.

  Jane Hirshfield

  Magnification

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• Myths that need clarification: "Everyone in California lives on a white, sandy beach." False. The only people who live on California beaches are vacationers from Arizona, Utah, and Nevada who own condos.

  Erma Bombeck

  Beach, Utah, California

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