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9cfa480 Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery. inspiration inspirational smart understanding wise acceptance J.K. Rowling
650924c Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. rationality reason sense stupidity understanding Euripides
18bba7c In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them.... I destroy them. epiphany hate love understanding Orson Scott Card
f9f1a88 Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever,- One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never. happy ladies men sadness understanding William Shakespeare
13d2d21 I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me. instinct knowledge search seekers self-awareness self-discovery understanding Hermann Hesse
a1e6246 Do not seek the because - in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions. understanding inspirational Anaïs Nin
9b51b25 For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. delusion knowledge religion science truth understanding Carl Sagan
d01aa9a Sometimes all a person wants is an empathetic ear; all he or she needs is to talk it out. Just offering a listening ear and an understanding heart for his or her suffering can be a big comfort. empathy heart inspiration inspirational inspirational-attitude inspirational-life inspirational-quotes inspire inspiring life life-and-living life-lessons life-quotes listening listening-ear living optimism optimistic positive positive-affirmation positive-life positive-thinking understanding Roy T. Bennett
164e665 One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silences. Often secrets are not revealed in words, they lie concealed in the silence between the words or in the depth of what is unsayable between two people. understanding John O'Donohue
cc8c329 Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. order princess-irulan reality understanding Frank Herbert
e1d2979 Because God is never cruel, there is a reason for all things. We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one. god loss purpose understanding Dean Koontz
7a44d8d The funny thing about facing imminent death is that it really snaps everything else into perspective. understanding James Patterson
a185daf Don't you understand that we need to be childish in order to understand? Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn't developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don't expect to see. understanding Douglas Adams
a9a74d9 I think it happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. And so you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on. moving-on understanding Nicholas Sparks
054290c More generally, as I shall repeat in Chapter 8, one of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding. satisfaction understanding willful-ignorance Richard Dawkins
62aaf56 "If other people do not understand our behavior--so what? Their request that we must only do what they understand is an attempt to dictate to us. If this is being "asocial" or "irrational" in their eyes, so be it. Mostly they resent our freedom and our courage to be ourselves. We owe nobody an explanation or an accounting, as long as our acts do not hurt or infringe on them. How many lives have been ruined by this need to "explain," which usually implies that the explanation be "understood," i.e. approved. Let your deeds be judged, and from your deeds, your real intentions, but know that a free person owes an explanation only to himself--to his reason and his conscience--and to the few who may have a justified claim for explanation." freedom life understanding Erich Fromm
f0c84e6 And when I came in with tears in my eyes, you always knew whether I needed you to hold me or just let me be. I don't know how you knew, but you did, and you made it easier for me. compassion understanding nicholas sparks
1e804e9 How much can we ever know about the love and pain in another heart? How much can we hope to understand those who have suffered deeper anguish, greater deprivation, and more crushing disappointments than we ourselves have known? experience understanding Orhan Pamuk
b73e6ec Men build too many walls and not enough bridges. bigotry bridges compassion culture culture-wars cultures empathy hate hatred inspirational intolerance love men misattributed misattributed-to-isaac-newton racism separation sympathy tolerance understanding walls Joseph Fort Newton
5c2f7fd If you can't understand it without an explanation, you can't understand it with an explanation. understanding Haruki Murakami
575bd5d "I don't profess any religion; I don't think it's possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words 'spiritual' or 'spirituality.' atheist difficulty possibility sarcasm spiritual spirituality understanding writing Philip Pullman
00b505c In order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did and why you no longer need to feel it. feelings life understanding Mitch Albom
02957aa There's nothing as significant as a human face. Nor as eloquent. We can never really know another person, except by our first glance at him. Because, in that glance, we know everything. Even though we're not always wise enough to unravel the knowledge. understanding Ayn Rand
6e33285 When you were in love, you were capable of learning everything and of knowing things you had never dared even to think, because love was the key to understanding all of the mysteries. understanding Paulo Coelho
1f8a94e No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere. future gains hope illusion inspirational knowledge progress science understanding Sigmund Freud
51045ef "Then why do you want to know?" "Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do." learning understanding Umberto Eco
1cd195a The main condition for the achievement of love is the overcoming of one's narcissism. The narcissistic orientation is one in which one experiences as real only that which exists within oneself, while the phenomena in the outside world have no reality in themselves, but are experienced only from the viewpoint of their being useful or dangerous to one. The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see other people and things , objectively, and to be able to separate this picture from a picture which is formed by one's desires and fears. humility love narcissism narcissistic objective objectivity psychology selfishness subjective understanding understanding-oneself-and-others Erich Fromm
e82aea1 Love allows understanding to dawn, and understanding is precious. Where you are understood, you are at home. Understanding nourishes belonging. When you really feel understood, you feel free to release yourself into the trust and shelter of the other person's soul. understanding John O'Donohue
4da8f72 She's a woman, you're a dude. You're not to understand her. That's what she's after.... She doesn't want you to understand . She knows impossible. She just wants you to understand . Everything else is negotiable. inspirational men-and-women understanding understanding-oneself-and-others Neal Stephenson
f61bae6 I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind. greed insight understanding Michel de Montaigne
a0f8b3d We pass through the present with our eyes blindfolded. We are permitted merely to sense and guess at what we are actually experiencing. Only later when the cloth is untied can we glance at the past and find out what we have experienced and what meaning it has. revelation understanding Milan Kundera
2692425 That's what heaven is. You get to make sense of your yesterdays understanding Mitch Albom
f44b490 Not being understood may be taken as a sign that there is much in one to understand. understanding Alain de Botton
33fd620 To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the others. philosophy understanding Alexandre Dumas
647751c To learn to see- to accustom the eye to calmness, to patience, and to allow things to come up to it; to defer judgment, and to acquire the habit of approaching and grasping an individual case from all sides. This is the first preparatory schooling of intellectuality. One must not respond immediately to a stimulus; one must acquire a command of the obstructing and isolating instincts. intellectualism reactions seeing understanding Friedrich Nietzsche
224670f The faculty to think objectively is ; the emotional attitude behind reason is that of . To be objective, to use one's reason, is possible only if one has achieved an attitude of humility, if one has emerged from the dreams of omniscience and omnipotence which one has as a child. Love, being dependent on the relative absence of narcissism, requires the developement of humility, objectivity and reason. I must try to see the difference between picture of a person and his behavior, as it is narcissistically distorted, and the person's reality as it exists regardless of my interests, needs and fears. conflict empathy erich-fromm humility love narcissism objective objectivity reason reasoning selfishness subjective the-art-of-loving understanding Erich Fromm
aa90e20 Understanding is a kind of ecstasy understanding Carl Sagan
9cce14b "You could give a tutorial. And you could thrill him to the core of his being. was an encyclopedic polymath, an all time intellect. Yet not only can you know more than him about the world. You also can have a deeper understanding of how everything works. Such is the privilege of living after , , , , , and their colleagues. I'm not saying you're more intelligent than aristotle charles-darwin crick darwin einstein francis-crick intellect isaac-newton james-d-watson james-watson knowledge max-planck newton planck polymath science understanding watson Richard Dawkins
6edd324 There are times when a feeling of expectancy comes to me, as if something is there, beneath the surface of my understanding, waiting for me to grasp it. It is the same tantalizing sensation when you almost remember a name, but don't quite reach it. I can feel it when I think of human beings, of the hints of evolution suggested by the removal of wisdom teeth, the narrowing of the jaw no longer needed to chew such roughage as it was accustomed to; the gradual disappearance of hair from the human body; the adjustment of the human eye to the fine print, the swift, colored motion of the twentieth century. The feeling comes, vague and nebulous, when I consider the prolonged adolesence of our species; the rites of birth, marriage and death; all the primitive, barbaric ceremonies streamlined to modern times. Almost, I think, the unreasoning, bestial purity was best. Oh, something is there, waiting for me. Perhaps someday the revelation will burst in upon me and I will see the other side of this monumental grotesque joke. And then I'll laugh. And then I'll know what life is. restlessness understanding Sylvia Plath
11c7b64 Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy ready-made things in the shops. But since there are no shops where you can buy friends, men no longer have any friends. friends friendship reflection time understanding Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
8647ad5 " This was a brave statement but innocently absurd. No one will ever understand Auschwitz. What I might have set down with more accuracy would have been: Auschwitz itself remains inexplicable. The most profound statement yet made about Auschwitz was not a statement at all, but a response. The query: "At Auschwitz, tell me, where was God?" And the answer: "Where was man?" evil god humanity man understanding William Styron
7187493 It is so difficult - at least, I find it difficult - to understand people who speak the truth. truth understanding E. M. Forster
c517a3c she, with her affection and her gaiety, had been largely responsible for him having rediscovered the meaning of life, her love had driven him to the far corners of the Earth, because he needed to be rich enough to buy some land and live in peace with her for the rest of their days. It was his utter confidence in this fragile creature, that had made him fight with honor, because he knew that after a battle he could forget all the horrors of war in her arms, and that, despite all the women he had known, only there in her arms could he close his eyes and sleep like a child. safety understanding Paulo Coelho
7bb9fdc the buddhists say there are 149 ways to god. i'm not looking for god, only for myself, and that is far more complicated. fate self-discovery understanding Jeanette Winterson
a90de5b We understand more than we know. science understanding wisdom Margaret Atwood
0473612 You remember only what you want to remember. You know only what your heart allows you to know. knowledge memory remembrance understanding Amy Tan
5bd4643 A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding. opinion probes social-science understanding wisdom Marshall McLuhan
5d7632c Sometimes it is only a True Friend who knows what we mean when we try to speak. Somebody who has spent a lot of time with us, and listens carefully to what we are trying to say, and tries to understand. understanding Cressida Cowell
8d877d2 They didn't understand what they were doing. I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race. humanity science understanding Michael Crichton
7d2017a We have to make mistakes, it's how we learn compassion for others. mistakes understanding Curtis Sittenfeld
3031a71 "People often silence themselves, or "agree to disagree" without fully exploring the actual nature of the disagreement, for the sake of protecting a relationship and maintaining connection. But when we avoid certain conversations, and never fully learn how the other person feels about all of the issues, we sometimes end up making assumptions that not only perpetuate but deepen misunderstandings, and that can generate resentment." conflict courage disagreement understanding vulnerability Brené Brown
dad2877 Depending on the situation, sometimes you can know a person better in ten minutes than someone you have crossed paths with all your life. knowledge understanding David Baldacci
03fb1e6 And in this passion for understanding her soul lay close to his; she had him all to herself. But he must be made abstract first. heartbreak passion understanding D.H. Lawrence
90aaf6b It may be a species of impudence to think that the way you understand God is the way God is. (60). god hubris impudence understanding Joseph Campbell
c74d4c1 The owl of Minerva begins its flight only with the coming of the dusk. understanding wisdom Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
06463ad It's not as if our lives are simply divided into light and dark. There's a shadowy middle ground. Recognizing and understanding the shadows is what a healthy intelligence does. understanding Haruki Murakami
1a8354b ...you realize that you don't understand yourself any better than you understand anyone else. poignant understanding Jonathan Tropper
e019d62 Before you hate something you should try to understand it. philosophy understanding Martha Grimes
489a9c1 She sang, as requested. There was much about love in the ballad: faithful love that refused to abandon its object; love that disaster could not shake; love that, in calamity, waxed fonder, in poverty clung closer. The words were set to a fine old air -- in themselves they were simple and sweet: perhaps, when read, they wanted force; when sung, they wanted nothing. Shirley sang them well: she breathed into the feeling, softness, she poured round the passion, force: her voice was fine that evening; its expression dramatic: she impressed all, and charmed one. On leaving the instrument, she went to the fire, and sat down on a seat -- semi-stool, semi-cushion: the ladies were round her -- none of them spoke. The Misses Sympson and the Misses Nunnely looked upon her, as quiet poultry might look on an egret, an ibis, or any other strange fowl. What made her sing so? never sang so. Was it proper to sing with such expression, with such originality -- so unlike a school girl? Decidedly not: it was strange, it was unusual. What was must be ; what was must be . Shirley was judged. empathy expectations expression faithfulness feeling fidelity gender gift hypocrisy jealousy judgment love morality music musicality passion preconceptions prejudice propriety rejection singing social-norms society talent understanding women Charlotte Brontë
772eb82 While people argue with one another about the specifics of Freud's work and blame him for the prejudices of his time, they overlook the fundamental truth of his writing, his grand humility: that we frequently do not know our own motivations in life and are prisoners to what we cannot understand. We can recognize only a small fragment of our own, and an even smaller fragment of anyone else's, impetus. humility impetus motivations prejudice truth understanding Andrew Solomon
c021b32 Despite the fact that I have no regrets about how things turned out in my life, I still can't help wanting to understand my intense relationship with Leo, as well as that turbulent time between adolescence and adulthood when everything feels raw and invigorating and scary-and why those feelings are all coming back to me now. endings goodbyes growing-up relationships understanding Emily Giffin
13c6ecf Was it all put into words, or did both understand that they had the same thing at heart and in their minds, so that there was no need to speak of it aloud, and better not to speak of it? understanding Fyodor Dostoyevsky
d4bce7d Understanding comes hard to persons of high rank who are accustomed to phony lifestyles that involve no daily work. society understanding work Kenzaburō Ōe
41ca4b8 It is my belief no man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self-knowledge. knowledge self understanding Joseph Conrad
42e521e "Do you think things always have an explanation? "Yes. I believe that they do. But I think that with our human limitations we're not always able to understand the explanations. But you see, Meg, just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist." theory understanding Madeleine L'Engle
5e342a2 Learn to see what you are looking at. understanding Christopher Paolini
b56daf3 It's not about having things figured out, or about communicating with other people, trying to make them understand what you understand. It's about a chicken dinner at a drive-in. A soft pillow. Things that don't need explaining. connection love understanding Ann Beattie
e79d8b1 I have wanted you to see out of my eyes so many times. point-of-view understanding Elizabeth Berg
55a16b6 Understanding requires insight. Insight must be anchored. science understanding Brian Greene
3f5c202 To love is easy and therefore common - but to understand - how rare it is! understanding L.M. Montgomery
20c8f48 I could see why Archimedes got all excited. There was nothing finer than the feeling that came rushing through you when it clicked and you suddenly understood something that had puzzled you. It made you think it just might be possible to get a handle on this old world after all. puzzle understanding world Jeannette Walls
f5ae23f The knowledge that he had left me with no intent ever to return had come over me in tiny droplets of realization spread over the years. And each droplet of comprehension brought its own small measure of hurt...He had wished me well in finding my own fate to follow, and I never doubted his sincerity. But it had taken me years to accept that his absence in my life was a deliberate finality, an act he had chosen, a thing completed even as some part of my soul still dangled, waiting for his return. choose comprehension desire farewell fate fitz follow fool hurt knowledge leave left pain part-ways realize return seek separate sincere sorrow soul understanding wait wish Robin Hobb
f53b2bd The key to understanding any people is in its art: its writing, painting, sculpture. painting people sculpture understanding writing Louis L'Amour
13b75f9 Reading Plato should be easy; understanding Plato can be difficult. reading understanding Robin Waterfield
b6b6ce4 I was starting to see that what looks like garbage from one angle might be art from another. Maybe it did take a crisis to get to know yourself; maybe you needed to get whacked hard by life before you understood what you wanted out of it. crisis garbage life truth understanding yourself Jodi Picoult
7bbe6de "Fang swerved closer to me, big and supremely graceful, like a black panther with wings. Oh, God. I'm so stupid. Forget I just said that. "He needs a Band-Aid," I said. A look passed between me and Fang, full of suppressed humor, relief, understanding,love -- Forget I said that too. I don't know what's wrong with me." flying friendship funny humor lol love relief understanding wings James Patterson
601b076 By understanding the nuances of the world around you and how to survive the temptations, you can rule anything. Even yourself survive understanding Sherrilyn Kenyon
abfd724 depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying. understanding vain John Green
8f839e0 And when wind and winter harden All the loveless land, It will whisper of the garden, You will understand. understanding wife Oscar Wilde
a261577 Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness. knowledge understanding Michel de Montaigne
8adf337 I would walk along the quais when I had finished work or when I was trying to think something out. It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood. understanding walking work writing Ernest Hemingway
d37b50b Feeling very surprised too at myself. I knew what was happening, O my brothers. I was like growing up. understanding Anthony Burgess
16cdc3d it has to be emphasized that if the pain were readily describable most of the countless sufferers from this ancient affliction would have been able to confidently depict for their friends and loved ones (even their physicians) some of the actual dimensions of their torment, and perhaps elicit a comprehension that has been generally lacking; such incomprehension has usually been due not to a failure of sympathy but to the basic inability of healthy people to imagine a form of torment so alien to everyday experience. depressed depression health mental-illness pain sufferer sympathy torment understanding William Styron
57e227f "And where," Socrates smiled, "is the universe?" "The universe is well, there are theories about how it's shaped..." "That's not what I asked. Where is it?" "I don't know - how can I answer that?" "That is the point. You cannot answer it, and you never will. There is no knowing about it. You are ignorant of where the universe is, and thus, where you are. In fact, you have no knowledge of where anything is or of What anything is or how is came to be. Life is a mystery. "My ignorance is based on this understanding. Your understanding is based on ignorance. This is why I am a humorous fool, and you are a serious jackass." ignorance seriousness understanding Dan Millman
4c2ed5f She lived a good deal by herself, to herself, working, passing on from day to day, and always thinking, trying to lay hold on life, to grasp it in her own understanding. Her active living was suspended, but underneath, in the darkness, something was coming to pass. If only she could break through the last integuments! finding-yourself living-alone understanding women D.H. Lawrence
f5289f2 I guess he had listened to more beefs and more problems from more people than any of us. A guy that'll really listen to you, listen and care about what you're saying, is something rare. listening understanding S.E. Hinton
29a9cc0 And yet, will we ever come to an end of discussion and talk if we think we must always reply to replies? For replies come from those who either cannot understand what is said to them, or are so stubborn and contentious that they refuse to give in even if they do understand. replies stubbornness trolls understanding Augustine of Hippo
7c072a9 "Why do they make things so complicated?" "So that those who have the responsibility for understanding can understand.," he said. "Imagine if everyone went around transforming lead into gold. Gold would lose its value." "It's those who are persistent, and willing to study things deeply, who achieve the Master Work." understanding value Paulo Coelho
9a1b6de Thus the feeling I sometimes have - which all of us who work closely with aphasiacs have - that one cannot lie to an aphasiac. He cannot grasp your words, and cannot be deceived by them; but what he grasps he grasps with infallible precision, namely the expression that goes with the words, the total, spontaneous, involuntary expressiveness which can never be simulated or faked, as words alone can, too easily. grasping ideas lies understanding Oliver Sacks
a87e99f Misunderstanding must be nakedly exposed before true understanding can begin to flourish. understanding Philip Yancey
db7cdb3 We are losing the ability to understand anything that's even vaguely complex. thought understanding wisdom Chuck Klosterman
a475ad7 "Being tough isn't in and of itself a bad thing. Looking back on it, though, I can see I was too used to being strong, and never tried to understand those who were weak. I was too used to being fortunate, and didn't try to understand those less fortunate. Too used to being healthy, and didn't try to understand the pain of those who weren't. Whenever I saw a person in trouble, somebody paralyzed by events, I decided it was entirely his fault--he just wasn't trying hard enough. People who complained were just plain lazy. My outlook on life was unshakable, and practical, but lacked any human warmth. And not a single person around me pointed this out.'" - Miu" fortunate healthy strong tough understanding weak Haruki Murakami
e9cb8da She had always observed that she got on better with clever women than silly ones like herself; the silly ones could never understand her wisdom; whereas the clever ones - the really clever ones - always understood her silliness. silliness understanding wisdom women Henry James
9a62fdc I read a page of Plato's great work. I can no longer understand anything, because behind the words on the page, which have their own heavenly brightness, to be sure, there shines an even brighter, an enormous, dazzling -why- that blots out everything, cancels out, destroys all meaning. All individual intelligence. When one has understood, one stops, satisfied with what one has understood. I do not understand. Understanding is far too little. To have understood is to be fixed, immobilized. It is as though one wanted to stop on one step in the middle of a staircase, or with one foot in the void and the other on the endless stair. But a mere why, a new why can set one off again, can unpetrify what was petrified and everything starts flowing afresh. How can one understand? One cannot. fixity intellect limits meaning understanding why Eugène Ionesco
153aaef "The Patrician took a sip of his beer. "I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect I never will again, but one day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I'm sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters, who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining on mother and children. And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built into the nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior." evil existentialism mothers patrician understanding Terry Pratchett
36d797e Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our heats? Can the writer renew our hope for literary forms? Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries, so we may feel again their majesty and power? reading understanding writing writing-life Annie Dillard
ed2ceaf the underlying struggle - between worlds of plenty and worlds of want; between the modern and the ancient; between those who embrace our teeming, colliding, irksome diversity, while still insisting on a set of values that binds us together, and those who would seek, under whatever flag or slogan or sacred text, a certainty and simplification that justifies cruelty toward those not like us... cruelty homosexuality politics religion respect tolerance understanding understanding-oneself-and-others understanding-others Barack Obama
d8f60b5 At that moment a very good thing was happening to her. Four good things had happened to her, in fact, since she came to Misselthwaite Manor. She had felt as if she had understood a robin and that he had understood her; she had run in the wind until her blood had grown warm; she had been healthily hungry for the first time in her life; and she had found out what it was to be sorry for someone. growing healthy understanding Frances Hodgson Burnett
84d81b8 We must not attach knowledge to the mind, we have to incorporate it there. mind understanding Michel de Montaigne
226ed20 Those whom heaven helps we call the sons of heaven. They do not learn this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not reason it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven. --Chuang Tse: XXIII fate limits understanding Ursula K. Le Guin
aa6f23d The young specialist in English Lit, having quoted me, went on to lecture me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern 'knowledge' is that it is wrong. The young man then quoted with approval what Socrates had said on learning that the Delphic oracle had proclaimed him the wisest man in Greece. 'If I am the wisest man,' said Socrates, 'it is because I alone know that I know nothing.' The implication was that I was very foolish because I was under the impression I knew a great deal. Alas, none of this was new to me. (There is very little that is new to me; I wish my correspondents would realize this.) This particular theme was addressed to me a quarter of a century ago by John Campbell, who specialized in irritating me. He also told me that all theories are proven wrong in time. My answer to him was, 'John, when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together. earth flat-earth greece ignorance knowledge relativity science scientific-theory socrates theory understanding universe wisdom wrong Isaac Asimov
4e4a4fa Why did I allow myself to be bored ever in the past and to compensate for it got high or drunk or rages or all the tricks people have because they want anything but serene understanding of just what there is, which is after all so much. life past understanding Jack Kerouac
eaf41d9 The mass State has no intention of promoting mutual understanding and the relationship of man to man; it strives, rather, for atomization, for the psychic isolation of the individual. individuality mutuality politics relationship state statism understanding C.G. Jung
94a7a16 I don't know what understanding myself is. I don't look inside. I don't believe I exist behind myself. clarity existence feeling meaning-of-life nature paganism pantheism personae personality reality seeing self understanding Alberto Caeiro
961f31c marriage is about becoming a team. You're going to spend the rest of your life learning about each other, and every now and then, things blow up. But the beauty of marriage is that if you picked the right person and you both love each other, you'll always figure out a way to get through it love marriage perseverence understanding Nicholas Sparks
6a4050c "I'm trying to understand. How you could come to love a monster." "Why?" Her eyes were blazing as she hissed, "Because it will help me understand how did the same. Is it a sickness?" she demanded, "Is it something broken within you?" kingdom-of-ash love monster sickness understanding Sarah J. Maas
56f313c I like the sound of words, but I don't ever really expect my slow, slanted impression of the world to change by what I read. reading understanding wicked words Gregory Maguire
58e0a9c [L]ife is a phenomenon in need of criticism, for we are, as fallen creatures, in permanent danger of worshipping false gods, of failing to understand ourselves and misinterpreting the behaviour of others, of growing unproductively anxious or desirous, and of losing ourselves to vanity and error. Surreptitiously and beguilingly, then, with humour or gravity, works of art--novels, poems, plays, paintings or films--can function as vehicles to explain our condition to us. They may act as guides to a truer, more judicious, more intelligent understanding of the world. art criticism desire films gravity humor life novels paintings plays poems self-understanding understanding vanity Alain de Botton
69acdd4 Understanding begets empathy and compassion even for the meanest beggar - Oromis understanding Christopher Paolini
963622f As long as you believe it is impossible, you close your mind to understanding it. understanding Robin Hobb
af0a059 "Whatever you is, Onion," he said, "be it full." existence purpose self self-actualization understanding James McBride
8c16c1b A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel... he must lay the best coffee hearth to attract the finest men... a good ruler has to learn his world's language... it's different for every world... the language of the rocks and growing things... the language you don't hear just with your ears... the Mystery of Life... not a problem to solve, but a reality to experience... Understanding must move with the flow of the process. experience flow languages leadership life mystery persuasion problem process reality team understanding Frank Herbert
d5bc964 It has an unhappy effect upon the human understanding and temper, for a man to be compelled in his gravest investigation of an argument, to consider, not what is true, but what is convenient. convenience truth understanding William Godwin
cf25fa0 As understanding deepens, the further removed it becomes from knowledge. knowledge logical-thinking philosophy psychology rationality self-reflection the-mind understanding C.G. Jung
e35ca3c Man has one name, and many more than two natures. But the essential two are these: that he shall strive to impose order on chaos, and that he shall strive to take advantage of chaos... A third element of man's nature is this: that he shall not understand what he is doing. human-nature order pattern understanding John Brunner
34c1630 "As a therapist, I have many avenues in which to learn about DID, but I hear exactly the opposite from clients and others who are struggling to understand their own existence. When I talk to them about the need to let supportive people into their lives, I always get a variation of the same answer. "It is not safe. They won't understand." My goal here is to provide a small piece of that gigantic puzzle of understanding. If this book helps someone with DID start a conversation with a supportive friend or family member, understanding will be increased." goal mental-health mental-illness mpd multiple-personality-disorder multiplicity normal pain piece psychiatric psychology puzzle safe safety support trauma understanding unsafe Deborah Bray Haddock
db0c7ec He began to write his thoughts and observations concerning the day's events [...] It helped him better understand everything he had seen and done over the course of the day. journal understanding writing Christopher Paolini
6ef0852 Fate is unalterable only in the sense that given a cause, a certain result must follow, but no cause is inevitable in itself, and man can shape his world if he does not resign himself to ignorance. destiny education fate ignorance self-determination understanding Pearl S. Buck
7716a71 When we look back, it becomes clear that the acts and accomplishments of human beings are the signatures of history. Human signatures have created an enormous chasm between the joyeous light of the age of the Renaissance to the dark shadow of September 11, 2001. Those of us living on that fateful day experienced the lower depths of mankind. As an author, avid reader, world traveler, and person of enormous curiosity, my life experiences have taught me that discord often erupts from a lack of knowledge and education. To discourage future dark moments, I believe we must nourish the minds of our young with learning that creates understanding between ethnic and religious groups. Perhaps understanding will lead to a marvelous day when we take a last fleeting look at violence so harmful to so many. I sincerely believe that nothing will further the cause of peace more than the education of our young. I would like for readers to know that a percentage of the profits from the sale of this book will be devoted to the cause of education. May all roads lead to peace. human-beings knowledge peace religious tolerance understanding world-peace Jean Sasson
5bcb784 "[Men] prefer the foolish belief and the passions of the earth [to the enlightenment of their souls]. They believe the absurd and shrink from the truth." "No, they do not. They are afraid, that is all. And they must remain on earth until they come to the way of leaving it." "And how do they leave? How is the ascent made? Must one learn virtue?" Here she laughs. "You have read too much, and learned too little. Virtue is a road, not a destination. Man cannot be virtuous. Understanding is the goal. When that is achieved, the soul can take wing." enlightenment fear mankind philosophy soul truth understanding virtue Iain Pears
d9c2862 Why are we here?' 'To make more love.' 'All right, fair enough. But how do we best love this world Allah gave us? We do it by learning it! [...] If you try to understand things, if you look at the world and say, why does this happen, why do things fall, why does the sun come up every morning and shine on us, and warm the air and fill the leaves with green--how does all this happen? What rules has Allah used to make this beautiful world?--Then it is all transformed. God sees that you appreciate it. And even if He doesn't, even if you never know anything in the end, even if it's impossible to know, you can still try. [...] This is God's real work. knowledge science understanding Kim Stanley Robinson
f436abb Look around. It's almost gone. If only someone had told me that before. About life. If only I had understood. inspirational life life-is-short understanding Marisha Pessl
fbf8f64 Manlius ... took care in his invitations, actively sought to exclude from his circle crude and vulgar men like Caius Valerius. But they were all around; it was Manlius who lived in a dream world, and his bubble of civility was becoming smaller and smaller. Caius Valerius, powerful member of a powerful family, had never even heard of Plato. A hundred, even fifty years before, such an absurdity would have been inconceivable. Now it was surprising if such a man did know anything of philosophy, and even if it was explained, he would not wish to understand. civilization crudeness education knowledge like-mindedness materialism philosophy plato power understanding vulgarity Iain Pears
ccfcbbb To understand is to forgive. to-forgive understanding Ernest Hemingway
e025991 Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. language understanding Bill Watterson
c26b98b In the context of the Negro problem neither whites nor blacks, for excellent reasons of their own, have the faintest desire to look back; but I think that the past is all that makes the present coherent, and further, that the past will remain horrible for exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honestly. blacks history past race race-relations racism understanding whites James Baldwin
5c4cbbb I don't think it has anything to do with truth, Olhado. It's just cause and effect. We never can sort them out. Science refuses to admit any cause except first cause-knock down one domino, the one next to it also falls. But when it comes to human beings, the only type of cause that matters is final cause, the purpose. What a person had in mind. Once you understand what people really want, you can't hate them anymore. You can fear them, but you can't hate them, because you can always find the same desires in your own heart. hate-crimes understanding Orson Scott Card
aca6ea1 How long does it take to see something, to know someone? If you put in years, you realize how little you grasped at the start, even when you thought you knew. We move through life mostly not seeing what is around us, not knowing who is around us, not understanding the forces at play, not understanding ourselves. Unless we stay with it, and maybe this is a movie about staying with it. life-lessons movies understanding Rebecca Solnit
72f63fb Falling in love... how could he have made such light of it? Sneered even. As if it was trivial for us, a frill, a whim. It was, on the contrary, heavy going. It was the central thing, the way you understood yourself. love understanding Margaret Atwood
1b01d6f "Everyone's afraid of what they don't understand," Ringil said quietly." understanding Richard K. Morgan
d516114 Understanding breeds empathy. understanding understanding-oneself-and-others Christopher Paolini
36e0ef4 "Olivier took a deep breath, then turned and bowed in farewell. Gersonides nodded in return, then thought of something. "The manuscript you brought me, by that bishop. It argues that understanding is more important than movement. That action is virtuous only if it reflects pure comprehension, and that virtue comes from the comprehension, not the action." Olivier frowned. "So?" "Dear boy, I must tell you a secret." "What?" "I do believe it is wrong." comprehension philosophy right understanding virtue wrong Iain Pears
0349380 It was fortunate that love did not need words; or else it would be full of misunderstanding and foolishness. friendship hermann-hesse language love understanding Hermann Hesse
ca42755 "I remember when we found the first population of living Cerion agassizi in central Eleuthera. Our hypothesis of Cerion's general pattern required that two predictions be affirmed (or else we were in trouble): this population must disappear by hybridization with mottled shells toward bank-interior coasts and with ribby snails toward the bank-edge. We hiked west toward the bank-interior and easily found hybrids right on the verge of the airport road. We then moved east toward the bank-edge along a disused road with vegetation rising to five feet in the center between the tire paths. We should have found our hybrids but we did not. The Cerion agassizi simply stopped about two hundred yards north of our first ribby Cerion. Then we realized that a pond lay just to our east and that ribby forms, with their coastal preferences, might not favor the western side of the pond. We forded the pond and found a classic hybrid zone between Cerion agassizi and ribby Cerions. (Ribby Cerion had just managed to round the south end of the pond, but had not moved sufficiently north along the west side to establish contact with C. agassizi populations.) I wanted to shout for joy. Then I thought, "But who can I tell; who cares?" And I answered myself, "I don't have to tell anyone. We have just seen and understood something that no one has ever seen and understood before. What more does a man need?" prediction understanding Stephen Jay Gould
2409b70 We must not define Jesus and his kingdom by fitting them within conventional understandings of kings and kingdoms. Rather, we must judge and deconstruct those conventional definitions in light of Jesus and his example. kings understanding Brian D. McLaren
c03a790 Then turn your eyes back on me, and tell me that Cathy and I are still children to be treated with condescension, and are incapable of understanding adult subjects. adults child children condescension eyes incapable kid kids subjects teens told treated understand understanding young-adults V.C. Andrews
bf50872 I don't think that the Negro problem in America can be even discussed coherently without bearing in mind its context; its context being the history, traditions, customs, the moral assumptions and preoccupations of the country; in short, the general social fabric. Appearances to the contrary, no one in America escapes its effects and everyone in America bears some responsibility for it. context history race race-relations racism understanding James Baldwin
02848aa How is it that animals understand things I do not know, but it is certain that they do understand. Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it. Perhaps there is a soul hidden in everything and it can always speak, without even making a sound, to another soul. language understanding Frances Hodgson Burnett
b110c7a If you would understand the present, you must come to know the past. present understand understanding Libba Bray
7a54afa Why am I made the way I am? Why do I care about all the wrong things, and nothing at all for the right ones? Or, to tip it another way: how can I see clearly that everything I love or care about is illusion, and yet - for me, anyway - all that's worth living for lies in that charm A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don't get to choose our own hearts. We can't make ourselves want what's good for us or what's good for other people. We don't get to choose the people we are. life lonliness love path people questions reality-of-life sadness self understanding Donna Tartt
8e1aefa Unless we remember we cannot understand. understanding writing E.M. Forster
6f43875 And He will judge and will forgive all, the good and the evil, the wise and the meek . . . And when He has done with all of them, then He will summon us. 'You too come forth,' He will say, 'Come forth ye drunkards, come forth, ye weak ones, come forth, ye children of shame!' And we shall all come forth, without shame and shall stand before him. And He will say unto us, 'Ye are swine, made in the Image of the Beast and with his mark; but come ye also!' And the wise ones and those of understanding will say, 'Oh Lord, why dost Thou receive these men?' And He will say, 'This is why I receive them, oh ye wise, this is why I receive them, oh ye of understanding, that not one of them believed himself to be worthy of this.' And He will hold out His hands to us and we shall fall down before him . . . and we shall weep . . . and we shall understand all things! Then we shall understand everything! . . . and all will understand good-and-evil judgement sermon the-beast understanding Fyodor Dostoyevsky
9f4e603 Think about it. Politics is just a name for the way we get things done ... without fighting. We dicker and compromise and everybody thinks he has received a raw deal, but somehow after a tedious amount of talk we come up with some jury-rigged way to do it without getting anybody's head bashed in. That's politics. The only other way to settle a dispute is by bashing a few heads in ... and that is what happens when one or both sides is no longer willing to dicker. That's why I say politics is good even when it is bad because the only alternative is force-and somebody gets hurt. -- Senator Tom Fries discourse political-science politics understanding Robert A. Heinlein
efc9323 I wanted to call a time out, to demand that everybody just STOP until I could understand everything. understanding Elizabeth Gilbert
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