Samuel Johnson Quotes

It's impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because of what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out, there are too many parts, sides, crosscurrents, nuances; too many gestures, which could mean this or that, too many shapes which can never be fully described, too many flavors, in the air or on the tongue, half-colors, too many.

The charge of being ambiguous and indefinite may be brought against every human composition, and necessarily arises from the imperfection of language. Perhaps no two men will express the same sentiment in the same manner and by the same words; neither do they connect precisely the same ideas with the same words.

Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions.

There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

Vagueness is at times an indication of nearness to a perfect truth.

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.

Our intelligence is always imperfect.

I should think it hardly possible to state the opposite of the truth with more precision.

terminological inexactitude

Things are only real after one has learned to agree on their realness. What took place this evening, for instance, cannot possibly be real to you, because no one could agree with you about it. 'Do you mean that you didn't see what happened?'. Of course I did. But I don't count. I am the one who's lying to you, remember?

Spiritual Work is not easy. It means the willingness to surrender feelings that seem, while we're in them, like our defense against a greater pain. It means that we surrender to God our perceptions of all things.

None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error.

I'm not aware of too many things, I know what I know, if you know what I mean.

The weapons an author has at her disposal are flawed. There are words that feel shapeless and overused. Love, for example. I could write the word love a thousand times and it would mean a thousand different things to different readers.

When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.

General notions are generally wrong.

Forgiving someone does not mean you condone their behavior. The act of forgiveness takes place in your own mind. It really has nothing to do with the other person. The reality of true forgiveness lies in setting ourselves free from holding on to the pain. It is simply an act of releasing yourself from the negative energy.

Just because it's a dream doesn't mean it's a lie.

I don't know why I still find it so hard to accept that words are faulty and by their very nature innacurate

We are all created to be miserable, and that we all know it, and all invent means of deceiving each other. And when one sees the truth, what is one to do?

A lie was something that hadn't happened but might just as well have.

Language always betrays us, tells the truth when we want to lie, and dissolves into formlessness when we would most like to be precise.

Round numbers are always false.

People like to say, 'What do you mean exactly?' I would answer, 'I mean, but not exactly.'