An ornate gold frame filled with swirling purple fog, with a small round lens leaning against it.

Original artwork, not a still

Joseph Joubert

Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make clear.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Language is compared to a tool that changes how clearly we see. A useful expression can sharpen understanding, but the same tool can obscure whatever it fails to explain. The comparison warns that words shape perception even when they seem merely to describe something.

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