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bc27c28 Life is a long failure of understanding, a long, mistaken shutting of the heart. heart life mistaken shutting understanding Patricia Highsmith
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
d1f269d Everything is linked,' said an enraptured Baremboim on stage; 'everyone is linked, all our actions have ramifications, and music is a teacher of this interconnected reality.' There was, however, in the letter a mundane, prosaic footnote that nibbled at the very edges of possible understanding, since understanding must always be preceded by human curiosity. Perhaps it will vanish in the charged space between one suicide bomber and the next military bulldozer that buries human beings alive within the imagined security of their own homes; perhaps it will join other shards of recollected moments of curiosity and discovery, to weld into a vessel of receptivity and response. music peace understanding Wole Soyinka
137af52 There is always a city. There is always a civilisation. There is always a barbarian with a pickaxe. Sometimes you are the city, sometimes you are the civilisation, but to become that city, that civilisation, you once took a pickaxe and destroyed what you hated, and what you hated was what you did not understand. civilization hate history ignorance understanding Jeanette Winterson
fd9588e They set down all their knowledge on bits of leather or waxed wood or tablets of stone and think that is wisdom. What good does it do a piece of stone to have knowledge?...know it is the understanding graven in the heart that makes men wise. knowledge understanding wisdom Marion Zimmer Bradley
93a9893 Es gibt zwei Sorten von Mannern. Die einen verstehen 'etwas von Frauen', die anderen sind solche, die einfach 'Frauen verstehen'. Ich weiss nicht, welche Sorte mir verdachtiger ist. empathy gender men mysogyny prejudice understanding women Sten Nadolny
2eb33b1 I want to be cut off from people like Marloe. Being a real person oneself is a matter of setting up limits and drawing lines and saying no. I don't want to be a nebulous bit of ectoplasm straying around in other people's lives. That sort of vague sympathy with everybody precludes any real understanding of anybody . . . And it precludes any real loyalty to anybody. discerning iris-murdoch loner loyalty relationships setting-limits the-black-prince understanding Iris Murdoch
e6e5fb2 It could be that God has absconded but spread, as our vision and understanding of the universe have spread, to a fabric of spirit and sense so grand and subtle, so powerful in a new way, that we can only feel blindly of its hem. believe god life understanding universe Annie Dillard
801d1c7 ...Data itself... was tolerable. It was the constant nerve-web-expanding pain of context that would kill him. knowledge understanding wisdom Dan Simmons
6ae42e9 Fanaticism is the opposite of love. A wise man once told me - he's a Muslim, by the way - that he has more in common with a rational, reasonable-minded Jew than he does with a fanatic from his own religion. He has more in common with a rational, reasonable-minded Christian or Buddhist or Hindu than he does with a fanatic of his own religion. In fact, he has more in common with a rational, reasonable-minded atheist than he does with a fanatic of his own religion. extremism fanaticism religious-fanaticism tollerance understanding Gregory David Roberts
9ac6385 "I let my anger consume me." "It's understandable," she said. "It may be understandable," replied Pug, "but it is no more forgivable for being understandable." forgiveness understanding Raymond E. Feist
d58de60 A Course in Miracles says we think we're going to understand people in order to figure out whether or not they're worthy of our love, but that actually, until we love them, we can never understand them. What is not loved is not understood. We hold ourselves separate from people and wait for them to earn our love, but people deserve our love because of what God created them to be. As long as we're waiting for them to be anything better, we will constantly be disappointed. When we choose to join with them through approval and unconditional love, the miracle kicks in for both parties. This is the primary key, the ultimate miracle, in relationships. relationships understanding Marianne Williamson
1be2ffe He was pleased with everything that he did and learned and the days and months passed quickly. But he learned more from the river than Vasudeva could teach him. He learned from it continually. Above all, he learned from it how to listen, to listen with a still heart, with a waiting, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgment, without opinions. learning understanding Hermann Hesse
c3fe30e Wouldn't we all do better not trying to understand, accepting the fact that no human being will ever understand another, not a wife a husband, a lover a mistress, nor a parent a child? Perhaps that's why men have invented God -- a being capable of understanding. Perhaps if I wanted to be understood or to understand I would bam-boozle myself into belief, but I am a reporter; God exists only for leader-writers. relationships understanding Graham Greene
cd54c0f When they find what they don't like , they destroy it. Because it scares them-and you girls would scare them as much as anything they've ever seen.' 'Why?' asked Isobel. 'Because . . . because of what they believe. beliefs fear understanding unknown Gordon Dahlquist
ca777ae 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. We haven't remained idle, twiddling our thumbs while you were off having a good time. abandonement adult-subjects away children condescending condescension experience eyes good-time idleness incapable kids philosophy subjects thumbs understand understanding wisdom youth V.C. Andrews
85f08d4 Just 3 years of research between 2009 and 2012 witnessed a profound change in archaeological understanding of the geoglyphs of the southwestern Amazon. Previously they'd been thought to be just 750 years old; now, without any real attention being drawn to the implications, they'd become 2,000 years old. To put this in context, an error and subsequent correction on a similar scale would certainly attract a great deal of attention if it concerned Western architecture--indeed it would be like discovering that the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe such as Chartres and York Minster were not, in fact, works of the late medieval period but had actually been built by the Romans. geoglyphs implications understanding Graham Hancock
778208c Children are less easily frightened than we are.... they all understand princesses, of course. Haven't they all been badly bruised by peas? creativity fear imagination princesses understanding Madeleine L'Engle
6dcb0e7 She was such a solitary woman. A solitary woman who longed for one person to know her. I think I do know her now, but it is too late. loneliness relationships solitude understanding Jeanette Winterson
53d280f It never happened, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there to happen. All of that has been a brutal lesson to me in not overlooking or misunderstanding what is actually there, in your hands, now. We always think the thing we need to transform everything--the miracle--is elsewhere, but often it is right next to us. Sometimes it is us, ourselves. miracles possibilities self-reliance transformation understanding Jeanette Winterson
bccf5b9 She was her own Enigma Code and me and my dad were not Bletchley Park. mothers mysteries relationships understanding Jeanette Winterson
a17a6bc We ate our liver and spinach while watching the right honorable gentlemen of the British House of Commons yelling at each other about the Iraq invasion on C-SPAN. And it was damned good. It was good because it was liver and spinach with cheese, but mostly it was good because I didn't have to make it. Sometimes I want to beat Eric's head repeatedly against a sharp rock, but other times he knows just the right thing to do to make me forget about turning thirty- lull me into a comatose state on the couch with British news shows, then dose me with offal. liver married-life offal understanding Julie Powell
4a66aea I do not look to history to absolve my country of the need to do things right today. I seek to understand the wrongs of yesterday, both to grasp what has brought us to our present reality and to understand the past for itself. india past understanding wrongs Shashi Tharoor
94208a1 The truth is he spends thirty minutes of every hour suspecting he has missed some essential clue about himself. And not only himself--he has a recurring fantasy that one night, while he was asleep, the entire world was transformed into an alien planet, but no one bothered to tell him, and he didn't have the instinct to figure it out, and here he is now on a wild new Earth, walking around like an imbecile, as if everything he knows hasn't fallen away behind him like a river plummeting over a precipice. life self self-knowledge understanding Kevin Brockmeier
caa3c5d If you understand what makes him tick-what is magic for him- then you can understand anyone imagination magic relationship understanding Rene Denfeld
8550f41 We can only go to the limits of ourselves--I've learned that if nothing else. Anything more and we give too much away. Then we're not good for anyone. - Beryl Markham sacrifice self-awareness understanding Paula McLain
1870520 Despite it all, there were heroes who rose above their circumstances. Those who reached out to people of another race with compassion and even love. ethnicity heroes history inspiration love race southwest understanding Noel Marie Fletcher
8d410f3 I don't expect you to understand me any more than I can understand you; but I respect you and that's the difference between us. understanding Rumer Godden
0cc3567 This is where we work, in the interstices of ignorance, the land of contradiction and silence, planning to convince you with the seemingly known, to resolve - or make usefully vivid - the contradiction, and to make the silence eloquent. understanding writing Julian Barnes
8a6d49c Their love was thus seeded in the rich soil of mutual understanding. love understanding Jacqueline Winspear
118d186 Then I give her a grim shake of my head and say aloud, 'This blows ass.' She nods sympathetically. She doesn't understand, but of course, in her way she understands completely. understanding Elizabeth Gilbert
c8e5b93 In a world where it means so much to take a man by the hand and sit beside him, to look frankly into his eyes and feel his heart beating with red blood; in a world where a social cigar or a cup of tea together means more than legislative halls and magazine articles and speeches,--one can imagine the consequences of the almost utter absence of such social amenities between estranged races, whose separation extends even to parks and streetcars. segregation understanding W.E.B. Du Bois
ad62331 "Alice leaned first one way and then the other, down the line of children. She said, Is everybody understanding this?" One child said, "The misuse of power is the root of all evil?" Alice said, "Well...." Another child said, "There is no justice on the earth?" Alice said, "Well..." Another child said, "We are all alone in the world?" Alice said, "Well..." Another child said, "The greatest depth of our loss is the beginning of true freedom?" Alice said, "Well..." Another child said, "The disposal of human waste is the responsibility of the brokenhearted?" These were all phrases Alice had put on the chalkboard after other field trips. It occurred to Alice, hearing these phrases now, that she might have attempted to do too much with a class of fourth graders. She was willing to admit to some excesses. Alice said, "Just listen." education hope understanding Lewis Nordan
6886ff6 "Be warned: If you allow yourself to see dignity in someone, you have doomed yourself to wanting to understand and help whoever it is. "If you see dignity in anything, in fact--it doesn't have to be human--you will still want to understand it and help it. Many people are now seeing dignity in the lower animals and the plant world and waterfalls and deserts--and even in the entire planet and its atmosphere. And now they are helpless not to want to understand and help those things. "Poor souls!" empathy understanding Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
ee1a9c3 There's a reason we live in time. We are too small a flask [...] to tolerate too much knowing. Instead, truth must drip through us as through a pipette, to allow only moments of apprehension. Moments diffuse and miniature enough to be survived. memory moments time truth understanding Gregory Maguire
038c6f0 The earth is round and flat at the same time. This is obvious. That it is round appears indisputable; that it is flat is our common experience, also indisputable. The globe does not supersede the map; the map does not distort the globe. dichotomies earth globe map understanding Jeanette Winterson
729b1e1 As much as I might wish for a reason I could understand, in my heart, and not only in the dark intuitive part of me that shuddered away from such comprehension, it would never come. understanding Jacqueline Carey
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