Gadamer, Hans-Georg

"Understanding is not a state of rest but a state of play."

"Language is the universal medium in which understanding itself is realized."

"Genuine historical thinking must think away the distance and difference of the times."

"The hermeneutic experience is concerned with the otherness of the other."

"Truth is something we participate in, not something we possess."

"Being that can be understood is language."

"Prejudice is not necessarily an obstacle to understanding; it is rather the first opening to it."

"To understand is to come to an agreement about the thing itself."

"Interpretation is not an occasional act supplementary to the understanding of the text; rather, understanding is always interpretation."

"The important thing is to be open to the experience of the other."

"Human experience of the world is always already hermeneutical."

"Fusion of horizons is what happens in understanding."

"We cannot step out of history to view it from some neutral vantage point."

"The power of prejudice in our understanding cannot be overestimated."

"All understanding is fundamentally dialogical."

"There is no absolute beginning from which philosophy could start."

"Effective history is that in which we are ourselves involved."

"The task of hermeneutics is to clarify the miracle of understanding."

"Truth occurs when we least expect it, when we are open to being addressed."

"The meaning of a statement is not fixed but unfolds in dialogue."

"Art is a medium in which truth is revealed in a unique way."

"To understand a text means to understand oneself in front of that text."

"History is not a burden on memory but an illumination of the soul."

"Every interpretation is a new creation, yet bound to the text."

"We are always already within language, which makes understanding possible."

"The real power of language lies in its ability to make the world intelligible."

"Understanding requires patience and openness to what is foreign to us."

"The question is older than any answer."

"Finitude is not a limitation but the condition of understanding."

"We understand ourselves through the mediation of tradition."