Sunday, July 20, 2008 – Clarity Above All
Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. ~ Bertrand Russell
Insistence on clarity at all costs is based on sheer superstition as to the mode in which human intelligence functions. Our reasonings grasp at straws for premises and float on gossamers for deductions. ~ Alfred North Whitehead
Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think ~ Niels Bohr
Whoever knows he is deep, strives for clarity; whoever would like to appear deep to the crowd, strives for obscurity. For the crowd considers anything deep if only it cannot see to the bottom: the crowd is so timid and afraid of going into the water. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating. ~ Karl von Clausewitz
Perfect clarity would profit the intellect but damage the will. ~ Blaise Pascal
Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision. ~ Aldous Huxley
It’s amazing the clarity that comes with psychotic jealousy. ~ Rupert Everett
When the defects of others are perceived with so much clarity, it is because one possesses them oneself. ~ Jules Rena
To clarify means to offend. ~ Martin Heidegger
If you can’t be kind, at least be vague. ~ Judith S. Marin
Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small. ~ Donald Rumsfeld
There’s no sense in being precise when you don’t even know what you’re talking about. ~ John von Neumann
We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about. ~ Eric Hoffer
You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea. ~ Pablo Picasso
Puberty was very vague. I literally locked myself in a room and played guitar. ~ Johnny Depp
Life is like an overlong drama through which we sit being nagged by the vague memories of having read the reviews. ~ John Updike
Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do. ~ Gian Carlo Menotti
I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you’ve probably misunderstood what I’ve said. ~ Alan Greenspan
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. ~ Niels Bohr
Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth. ~ Jean-Paul Sartre
Truth is a great flirt. ~ Franz Liszt
Do you think that you can clear your mind by sitting constantly in silent meditation? This makes your mind narrow, not clear. Integral awareness is fluid and adaptable, present in all places and at all times. That is true meditation. … The Tao is clear and simple, and it doesn’t avoid the world. ~ Lao Tzu, The Hua Hu Ching
My father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I’m going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear? ~ Paul Robeson (1898-1976), testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, June 12, 1956
Just Above Sunset 