Pema Chodron Quotes

I think the interesting thing about the word 'posh' is that it is so relative; it's quite a provocative title because people have strong feelings about that word.

It shows the truth - that the real meaning of a word is only as powerful or harmless as the emotion behind it.

It is important that we realize that words have meanings far beyond the dictionary definition.

I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive.

The meaning of words has become so blurred by past usage that 'abstract' is identified with 'vague' and 'unreal,' and 'inwardness' with a sort of traditional beatitude... The conception of the word 'plastic' has also been limited by individual interpretations.

In common use almost every word has many shades of meaning, and therefore needs to be interpreted by the context.

It depends on what the meaning of “is” is.

Words are slippery and thoughts are vicious.

I've always loved the use of the word 'thick' when it comes to heavy because it's always a positive thing.

I'm well-read as far as literary fiction, but I wanted to make better decisions about my writing, to use words or phrases more confidently by learning how your words can be interpreted, the shades of meaning, the different connotations.

It's the frames which make some things important and some things forgotten. It's all only frames from which the content rises.

In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever in and of itself.

every word calls up far more of a picture than its actual meaning is supposed to do, and the writer has to deal with all these silent associations as well as with the uttered significance.

You rely on a sentence to say more than the denotation and the connotation; you revel in the smoke that the words send up.

It matters to me. That's what you don't get. You can't understand. You can't understand what it's like knowing what I did. That whole time being Strigoi...It's like a dream now, but it's one I remember clearly. There can be no forgiveness for me. And what happened with you? I remember that most of all. Everything I did. Everything I wanted to do.

In all the languages in the world, there is the same proverb: "What the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't grieve over." Well, I say that there isn't an ounce of truth in it. The further off they are, the closer to the heart are all those feelings that we try to repress and forget.

It's the emotion...each word has got a connotation and symbolism and the thing is finding what's behind the word-what meaning it has and what emotion. I'm really into vocal repetition as a definite art form.

In the light of her son's comment she reconsidered the scene at the mosque, to see whose impression was correct. Yes it could be worked into quite an unpleasant scene. The doctor had begun by bullying her, had said Mrs Callendar was nice, and then - finding the ground safe - had changed; he had alternately whined over his grievances and patronized her, had run a dozen ways in a single sentence, had been unreliable, inquisitive, vain. Yes, it was all true, but how false as a summary of the man; the essential life of him had been slain.

If they [the dead] should speak, it would be found that in matters of opinion no departed person was exactly what he had passed for in life. They would realise, deep down, that they, and whole nations along with them, are not really what they seem to be-and never can be.

Critic asks: 'And what, sir, is the subject matter of that painting?' - 'The subject matter, my dear good fellow, is the light.

O that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth! Then with passion would I shake the world.

We impose order and narrative on everything in order to understand it. Otherwise, there's nothing but chaos.

Stories turn anonymous strangers into people who matter.

What any true painting touches is an absence - an absence of which without the painting, we might be unaware. And that would be our loss.

Taste ... is a matter of taste (Tad Allagash)