Quotes & Sayings About Clarification

I've been in this business for a long time, and I no longer think that anything that I do by way of clarification is ever going to eradicate the mistakes. — Ann Beattie

Deciphering the rabbit warren that made up the minds of most women was never his strong suit. All he could do was ask for clarification. "Allegra, are you flirting with me?"
Her thumb stopped its stroking. "Um, yes. Am I not doing it right? — Chris Karlsen

(Pete) Rose's coming clean is the most soiled conversion of convenience since ... well, Aug. 17, 1998, when DNA evidence caused Bill Clinton to undergo a memory clarification. On the diamond, no one ever wrung more success from less natural talent than Rose did. But his second autobiography - which refutes the first - makes worse the mess he has made. — George Will

One of the main tasks of adolescence is to achieve an identity
not necessarily a knowledge of who we are, but a clarification ofthe range of what we might become, a set of self-references by which we can make sense of our responses, and justify our decisions and goals. — Terri E Apter

who's this dub?" "Lawyer." Lawyer? I glance to Al for clarification but he's clearly as bewildered as I am. (argument amongst other fishermen) John heads toward the door, then turns, points to me. "You're alright. Only lawyer I ever seen could keep his yap shut longer than thirty seconds. — Darcy Scott

Myths that need clarification: "Everyone in California lives on a white, sandy beach." False. The only people who live on California beaches are vacationers from Arizona, Utah, and Nevada who own condos. — Erma Bombeck

Misunderstanding - A "Missed Understanding" because of the human preference to Assumption over Clarification. — Drishti Bablani

When we don't directly ask for clarification, we tend to fill in the gaps with negative thoughts. These eventually become rooted in our minds as truths, and then everyone gets stuck in a cycle of misunderstanding and miscommunication. — Trish Cook

Since we want not emancipation from impulse but clarification of impulse, the duty of rhetoric is to bring together action and understanding into a whole that is greater than scientific perception. — Richard M. Weaver

THE FIGURE A POEM MAKES
No one can really hold that ecstasy should be static and stand still in one place. It begins in delight, it inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with the first line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life- Not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion. — Robert Frost

An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof.

('On the Extraordinary: An Attempt at Clarification", Zetetic Scholar, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 11, 1978) — Marcello Truzzi

You were prepositioned on this planet. But you weren't predestined. A clarification of your life purpose will lead you to set your goals, achieve your dreams and reach your destination. — Keerthi Singhe

Poetry's work is the clarification and magnification of being. — Jane Hirshfield

If you don't understand something clearly that you are being taught ... speak up.
If you feel something is confusing or you are unsure of exactly what to do ... ask about it.
If you need clarification or something repeated to make sure you got it ... request it.
If you feel lost, forgot something, or feel like you are falling behind ... bring it up.
Nodding your head, saying "yeah, yeah" and pretending to know things you don't is right up there with one of the worst things you can do when you hire some one to help you and your career. — Loren Weisman

Sanity, soundness, and sincerity, of which gleams and strains can still be found in the human brain under powerful microscopes, flourish only in a culture of clarification, which is now becoming harder and harder to detect with the naked eye. — James Thurber

The clarification of visual forms and their organization in integrated patterns as well as the attribution of such forms to suitable objects is one of the most effective training grounds of the young mind. — Rudolf Arnheim

The words, I love you, are empty without clarification. Women prefer to be told what they can expect. It is measurable like a Weight Watcher's diet, with extra points at the end of the week if you don't cheat. — Shannon L. Alder

Point of clarification," Alex said, raising his hand. "We have an apocalypse comin'? Was that a thing we knew about?" "Venus," Avasarala said. "Oh. That apocalypse," Alex said, lowering his hand. "Right. — James S.A. Corey

Mike Ruby, a writer in the magazine's Business section, used to call Newsweek writing f - k-style journalism: Flash (the lead), Understanding (the billboard - why is this story important), Clarification (tell the details of the story), and Kicker (bringing it all together with a clever ending). — Lynn Povich

So she talked, and Noah, to his credit, did not quibble. He interrupted once or twice, but only for the sake of amplification or clarification, never because he doubted the essential veracity of her story. She told him all of it, from the pod, to the aircraft, to Eunice and the Tantors. She told him what she had learned of Eunice's nature, and why she had no reason to doubt that she had been talking to a machine. She told him of Eunice's amnesia, and the thing called Arachne. — Alastair Reynolds

Mr. Collins shook his head. "Stay off the roof," he ordered. Then he paused. "Stay off all the roofs." The fact that he felt he had to make that clarification told me a great deal about Asher Rhodes. — Jennifer Lynn Barnes

We were sitting outside at our favorite Italian restaurant, Callini's, one Friday lunch when Sam revealed to me what his ideal female looked like. A few women walked by and Sam used words like "big legs" and "too big up top" to describe women that barely weighed over 100 pounds. The following bomb then pried its way out of his mouth, "I'm still in love with Winny Cooper."
I replied with shock in my voice, "Winny Cooper from The Wonder Years?"
Sam glowed, "Yeah, Winny is my ideal woman."
"You do realize that she was a little girl in that show," I said trying to awaken Sam's better judgment.
He started laughing, "Winnie was a babe. I had a huge crush on her."
I needed clarification: "You do realize that you were in your 20s when that show was on. So, that would mean that you had a crush on a 12 year-old. — Phil Wohl

Another reason for the increased self-centeredness of an adolescent is her susceptibility to humiliation. This brazen, defiant creature is also something tender, raw, thin-skinned, poignantly vulnerable. Her entire sense of personal worth can be shattered by a frown. An innocuous clarification of facts can be heard as a monumental criticism. — Louise J. Kaplan

It is management's job to direct the efforts of all components toward the aim of the system. The first step is clarification: everyone in the organization must understand the aim of the system, and how to direct his efforts toward it. Everyone must understand the damage and loss to the whole organization from a team that seeks to become a selfish, independent, profit center. — W. Edwards Deming

Hey - let's get something straight. It's a vampire/alien/zombie/warlock hybrid flick. — Julie James

At Columbia and far beyond, T.D. was renowned and celebrated. At the weekly research seminars I attended ... every speaker felt compelled to focus on him; as they spoke, their eyes fixated only on him, and he let no statement he did not fully agree with pass hi by. No matter who lectured at the seminar, T.D. concentrated intensely on their argument, and interrupted at the first instant something was not satisfactory. At times he broke in on the initial sentence of the talk, refusing to let a speaker proceed until the point was clarified. Sometimes clarification never came; I once witnessed the humiliation of a visiting postdoc who was forced to defend the first sentence he uttered for the entire hour and a half allowed for his seminar. No one dared restrain T.D. — Emanuel Derman

The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thought. — Ludwig Wittgenstein

I could have run after him. I could have asked politely for some clarification. But I didn't I knew what I preferred, and that was - I didn't want to know. Rather, I wanted to believe. — Lloyd Jones

He'd been able to see reasonably well with an extremely thick pair of glasses, but he'd lost these six years ago and since then he'd lived in a confusing landscape distilled to pure color according to season - summer mostly green, winter mostly gray and white - in which blurred figures swam into view and then receded before he could figure out who they were. He couldn't tell if his headaches were caused by straining to see or by his anxiety at never being able to see what was coming, but he did know the situation wasn't helped by the first flute, who had a habit of sighing loudly whenever the seventh guitar had to stop rehearsal to ask for clarification on the score that he couldn't see. — Emily St. John Mandel

Repetition plus translation plus generalization results, with the correct calculation, in clarification. If there is such a thing as 'progress in religion', it can only manifest itself as increasing explicitness. — Peter Sloterdijk

Yet in our hands and within our view is a whole universe of discovery and clarification, which is a pleasure to study in itself, gives the average person access to insights that not even Darwin or Einstein possessed, and offers the promise of near-miraculous advances in healing, in energy, and in peaceful exchange between different cultures. Yet millions of people in all societies still prefer the myths of the cave and the tribe and the blood sacrifice. — Christopher Hitchens

Sadly the very thing that strikes us as obvious always defeats our thinking about it in more penetrating ways: just as the Romans said that "the good is the enemy of the better," so too "the self-evident is the enemy of the very process of clarification or understanding," not to mention the enemy of the "transcendent or ultimate." — Kenny Smith

One group of scholars or persons, most of them politically motivated, say the Holocaust occurred. Then there is the group of scholars who represent the opposite position and have therefore been imprisoned for the most part. Hence, an impartial group has to come together to investigate and to render an opinion on this very important subject, because the clarification of this issue will contribute to the solution of global problems. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

sheepish, clarification. "Now, that plastic," Clark said. "Do you happen to — Jeffrey Toobin

Cellular pathology is not an end if one cannot see any alteration in the cell. Chemistry brings the clarification of living processes nearer than does anatomy. Each anatomical change must have been preceded by a chemical one. — Rudolf Virchow

Mr. Bates was sober, with that manly, British, churchman-like sobriety which can carry a few glasses of grog without any perceptible clarification of ideas. — George Eliot

BASICS OF DIET AND HEALTH The basic principles of good diets are so simple that I can summarize them in just ten words: eat less, move more, eat lots of fruits and vegetables. For additional clarification, a five-word modifier helps: go easy on junk foods. — Marion Nestle

Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend's house - should you choose to play your game at your friend's house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile. — Larry Hryb

Clarification. I imagined the events that occurred that night had led him to question a lot of things, even things that I'd admitted to already. "Yes." "Sean and Cooper too, right?" he asked with slight distaste. "Yes," I replied, feeling it best to leave it at that. "How long have you been this way? — Amber Lynn Natusch

Katharsis arrives in English virtually untranslated, as "catharsis," which derives from katharos - "pure." But the word has stretched to signify or entail a wide variety of processes, including clarification, enlightenment, purgation, elimination, transubstantiation, sublimation, release, satisfaction, homeopathic cure, or some combination thereof. Second, the phrasing of Aristotle's original sentence leaves it unclear whether "catharsis" applies to incidents or to emotions - that is, whether the action takes place inside an individual, outside of her, or somewhere in between. — Maggie Nelson

It is untrue that fiction is nonutilitarian. The uses of fiction are synonymous with the uses of literature. They include refreshment, clarification of life, self-awareness, expansion of our range of experiences, and enlargement of our sense of understanding and discovery, perception, intensification, expression, beauty , and understanding. Like literature generally, fiction is a form of discovery, perception, intensification, expression, beauty, and understanding. If it is all these things, the question of whether it is a legitimate use of time should not even arise. — Leland Ryken

Choice of aim is clearly a matter of clarification of values, especially on the choice between possible options. — W. Edwards Deming

Above all else, philosophy ought to aim for clarification - of the self, one's place in the world, and the ways we make meaning. Philosophy, when practiced well, can be useful. It can enable us to grapple in productive ways with questions about the meaning of life and who I am and how I want to be in the world. — Peg O'Connor

Since only an individual man can possess rights, the expression "individual rights"? is a redundancy (which one has to use for purposes of clarification in today's intellectual chaos). But the expression "collective rights"? is a contradiction in terms. — Ayn Rand

We are often embarrassed or too shy to ask for a clarification in a social setting, yet it is often necessary. — Scott Colter

"Playing" the resources of characterology for the sake of clarification and insight into the structures of actual existence is many times more daunting than playing a piano; it requires the thinking of chords of thoughts, not just isolated simplisms or abstracta; it demands the shaping or encompassing of morphological modes of intelligence that can comprehend gestalten, syndromes, historical and civilizational patterns in which it is not the particulars but their interactive significance (as an ensemble of actualities or principles) that is vital. — Kenny Smith

Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations. — Ludwig Wittgenstein

The most effective learning takes place in the classroom, where you can easily raise your hand, engage in spontaneous discussions with classmates and faculty, turn to the person next to you to ask for clarification, or approach the professor after class or during office hours to ask questions or exchange viewpoints in a way that practically guarantees an instant response and is not constrained by typing, software interfaces, or waiting for a response. — Ian Lamont

Our ability to make a decision about the declaration is hampered by the British government being reluctant to give us the clarification which we require. — Martin McGuinness

The clarification of equilibrium through plastic art is of great importance for humanity. It reveals that although human life in time is doomed to disequilibrium, notwithstanding this, it is based on equilibrium. It demonstrates that equilibrium can become more and more living in us. — Piet Mondrian

Arthur Church, who as I say took local journalism very seriously, wrote an eloquent defence of reporting even the nasty things. The gist of it was this, that it was in the public interest that the truth be known and known because it has been carefully reported and published. Without it, you are relying on the man in the pub, and rumour, possibly malicious rumour. If the local paper does for some reason get it wrong, then this would be known, and an apology and clarification would be made. This was not the best of all worlds, but better than the world of hearsay. — Terry Pratchett

Clarification is not to clarify things. It is to put one's self in the clear (Sir Humphrey Appleby) — Jonathan Lynn & Anthony Jay

Payne sought clarification. "Vertical or horizontal?"
"Horizontal, of course."
"Sorry but I can't help you."
"Will you pipe down for a minute? Naturally she was dead since I work at a cemetery. Her face struck a chord though. So, I rummaged around in the old Rory memory bank, and Emily is what rings a bell. Didn't we go to school with an Emily? Tenth or eleventh grade, if I recall it correctly. — Ed Lynskey

Rationalism is an adventure in the clarification of thought. — Alfred North Whitehead

You can't define the ache that's in George's voice. It's just something inherently him. It doesn't need definition. It doesn't need clarification. It doesn't need a lot of things. You just sit back and appreciate it. It's just greatness. — Vince Gill

People like to know you're listening, and something as simple as a clarification question shows not only that you are listening but that you also care about what they're saying. You'll be surprised how much respect and appreciation you gain just by asking good questions. — Travis Bradberry

Language is never fully trustworthy, but when it comes to eating animals, words are as often used to misdirect and camouflage as they are to communicate. Some words, like veal, help us forget what we are actually talking about. Some, like free-range, can mislead those whose consciences seek clarification. Some, like happy, mean the opposite of what they would seem. And some, like natural, mean next to nothing. — Jonathan Safran Foer

No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite. — David Hilbert

Myths that need clarification: "No matter how many times you see the Grand canyon, you are still emotionally moved to tears." False. It depends on how many children the out-of-towners brought with them who kicked the back of your seat from Phoenix to Flagstaff and got their gum caught in your hair. — Erma Bombeck

Logic issues in tautologies, mathematics in identities, philosophy in definitions; all trivial, but all part of the vital work of clarifying and organising our thought. — Frank Plumpton Ramsey

I think language beautifully full of the poetry of immanent clarification of some small pinprick of what living might mean. Fuck. Why else would anyone care to spend a life writing sentences? — Jill Talbot

Got it all scheduled," he noted.
"Yes," I returned.
"What's a huge-ass wedding?"
"Don't ask that," I advised. "Just show up."
His grin turned wicked and I liked it. That was, I liked it until he enquired, "You askin' me to marry you, Red?"
I wasn't even sipping coffee and, still, I chocked. Then I pushed out, "What?"
"I accept."
I shook my head and kept shaking it when I requested clarification, "Let me get this straight. Did you just accept my non-marriage offer?"
"Non-marriage?"
"I didn't ask!" My voice was rising.
"So you just wanna shack up?" he asked but didn't wait on my answer. "I'm good with that too."
Gah!
"I'm getting my huge-ass wedding," I declared.
"So you are askin' me to marry you," he noted.
Gah! Gah! Gah!!
Sharp as a tack.
Someone kill me. — Kristen Ashley

Progress consists only in the greater clarification of answers to the basic questions of life. — Leo Tolstoy

The clarification of our political ideas insensibly changes into and becomes indistinguishable from the history of political ideas. — Leo Strauss

Too often we fail to pause for clarification, thinking that we understand something before we do. In doing so, we miss the opportunity to grasp the full significance of an idea, an assertion, or an event. Asking "Wait, what?" is a good way to capture, rather than miss, those opportunities. — James E. Ryan