#ambiguity

I have always felt that a woman has the right to treat the subject of her age with ambiguity until, perhaps, she passes into the realm of over ninety. Then it is better she be candid with herself and with the world. ↗

— Carl Sandburg

#always #ambiguity #better #candid #felt

On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity. ↗

— Adam Smith

#city #had #i #pass #road

Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity. ↗

— Sigmund Freud

#inability #neurosis #tolerate

As long as there have been men and they have lived, they have all felt this tragic ambiguity of their condition, but as long as there have been philosophers and they have thought, most of them have tried to mask it. ↗

— Simone de Beauvoir

#existentialism #philosophers #men

There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words. ↗

— Thomas Reid

#ambiguity #greater #impediment #knowledge #than

Stories start in all sorts of places. Where they begin often tells the reader of what to expect as they progress. Castles often lead to dragons, country estates to deeds of deepest love (or of hate), and ambiguously presented settings usually lead to equally as ambiguous characters and plot, leaving a reader with an ambiguous feeling of disappointment. That's one of the worst kinds. ↗

— Rebecca McKinsey

#castles #characters #disappointment #dragons #hate

Before you can ask 'Is Darwinian theory correct or not?', You have to ask the preliminary question 'Is it clear enough so that it could be correct?'. That's a very different question. One of my prevailing doctrines about Darwinian theory is 'Man, that thing is just a mess. It's like looking into a room full of smoke.' Nothing in the theory is precisely, clearly, carefully defined or delineated. It lacks all of the rigor one expects from mathematical physics, and mathematical physics lacks all the rigor one expects from mathematics. So we're talking about a gradual descent down the level of intelligibility until we reach evolutionary biology. ↗

— David Berlinski

#biology #clarity #darwinism #evolution #macro-evolution

He prizes ambiguity; he loves to keep you guessing. ↗

— Lionel Shriver

#guessing #love

The use of the polygraph has done little more than create confusion, ambiguity and mistakes. ↗

— Aldrich Ames

#confusion #create #done #little #mistakes

I tell my students, if you ever become comfortable with your role as criminal defense lawyer, it's time to quit. It should be a constant source of discomfort, because you're dealing with incredible moral ambiguity, and you've been cast into a role which is not enviable. ↗

— Alan Dershowitz

#because #become #been #cast #comfortable