“Maybe vagueness has been good for me. The word means two different things in Tokyo and Osaka, you know. In Tokyo it means stupidity, but in Osaka they talk about vagueness in a painting and in a game of Go.”
Source: The Master of Go (1951), Ch. 18, p. 76.
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Yasunari Kawabata 44
Japanese author, Nobel Prize winner 1899–1972Related quotes
“I mean, sure, like all prophecy the wording is vague.”
Source: Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard (2015), Chapter 2, “Possibilities and Myths” (p. 27)
Prologue as translated in Readings in European History, Vol. I (1904) edited by James Harvey Robinson, p. 450
Sic et Non (1120)
Context: There are many seeming contradictions and even obscurities in the innumerable writings of the church fathers. Our respect for their authority should not stand in the way of an effort on our part to come at the truth. The obscurity and contradictions in ancient writings may be explained upon many grounds, and may be discussed without impugning the good faith and insight of the fathers. A writer may use different terms to mean the same thing, in order to avoid a monotonous repetition of the same word. Common, vague words may be employed in order that the common people may understand; and sometimes a writer sacrifices perfect accuracy in the interest of a clear general statement. Poetical, figurative language is often obscure and vague.
Not infrequently apocryphal works are attributed to the saints. Then, even the best authors often introduce the erroneous views of others and leave the reader to distinguish between the true and the false. Sometimes, as Augustine confesses in his own case, the fathers ventured to rely upon the opinions of others.
§ 120
Philosophical Investigations (1953)
Quote, 1914, from: Foreword
1970s, Some Memories of Drawings (1976)
Source:Tabuchi, Hiroko. "To Regain Video Game Lead, Japan Looks to West". https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/technology/20game.html?_r=2Retrieved 2018-07-15.
quote from Georges Jeanniot, in Souvenirs sur Degas (Memories of Degas, 1933)
quotes, undated
Constitutional Government in the United States, New York: NY, Columbia University Press, (1908) p. 16.
1900s
Variant: How true it is that words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes.
Source: Sister Carrie