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All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.
George Eliot
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Interpretation is essential to understanding meaning.

This quote by George Eliot emphasizes that the way we interpret information or experiences is vital to discerning their meanings. It suggests that meanings are not inherent but are shaped by our perceptions and understanding, highlighting the subjective nature of knowledge and interpretation.

Themes

InterpretationMeaningUnderstandingSubjectivityPerception

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about literature, this quote can help explain how different readers may derive varying meanings from the same text.

More from George Eliot

Go forward with joyful confidence.
George EliotRead
You must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have a pride in your own work and in learning to do it well.
George EliotRead
She thought it was part of the hardship of her life that there was laid upon her the burthen of larger wants than others seemed to feel – that she had to endure this wide hopeless yearning for that something, whatever it was, that was greatest and best on this earth.
George EliotRead
Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
George EliotRead
I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.
George EliotRead
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them: they can be injured by us, they can be wounded; they know all our penitence, all our aching sense that their place is empty, all the kisses we bestow on the smallest relic of their presence.
George EliotRead

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