If it is true that there is always more than one way of construing a text, it is not true that all interpretations are equal.
Paul Ricœur, “Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning” (1976), p. 79.
There isn’t just one point; it takes time to learn. You don’t have to be intelligent, but I think you have to be open to possibilities and willing to explore. The only stupid people are those who are arrogant and closed off.
Edward de Bono, as interviewed by Angela Balakrishnan in “Edward de Bono: ‘Iraq? They just need to think it through,’” The Guardian (Monday, April 23, 2007).
Happiness is a matter of one’s most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. To be damned is for one’s ordinary everyday mode of consciousness to be unremitting agonising preoccupation with self.
Iris Murdoch, The Nice and the Good (1968).
You must show that a man is wrong before you start explaining why he is wrong. The modern method is to assume without discussion that he is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became so silly.
C. S. Lewis, “Bulverism,” reprinted in God in the Dock (1970).
Virtue is the fount whence honour springs.
Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, Part I. IV. iv.
You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.
Edward de Bono, Lateral Thinking : Creativity Step by Step (1970), p. 8.