Quotes About Understanding

Because we inhibit the same material world and manoeuvre with languages tied to common definitions, we talk to others in the assumption that they largely share our images and conceptions.

It is common to assume that we are dealing with a highly intelligent book when we cease to understand it.

What we search for in a work of architecture is not in the end so far from what we search for in a friend.

The transmission of knowledge is in itself an erotic act.

TIMMS: I don't see how we can understand it. Most of the stuff poetry's about hasn't happened to us yet. HECTOR: But it will, Timms. It will. And then you will have the antidote ready! Grief. Happiness. Even when you're dying. We're making your deathbeds here, boys. LOCKWOOD: Fucking Ada. HECTOR: Poetry is the trailer! Forthcoming attractions!

One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human. One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try to tell them.

But ma'am must have been briefed, surely?' 'Of course,' said the Queen, 'but briefing is not reading. In fact it is the antithesis of reading. Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up.

I cannot heave my heart into my mouth, is a sentiment I can readily endorse. Her predicament is mine.

A few years ago she never would have noticed what Norman was doing. Or anyone else either. And if she took note of it now it was because she knew more of people's feelings than she used it. And could put herself in someone else's place.

as I think Hebbel says, in a good play everyone is right.

Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds.

We met it with love,' he cries, as if love were some all-purpose antibiotic, which to Geoffrey it probably is.

Books are not about passing the time.They're about other lives.

Who is above literature? You might as well say one was above humanity.

Solo quello che vedi con la coda dell'occhio ti tocca nel profondo. (E.M. Forster)

Ma qualcuno l'avrà pure ragguagliata, Maestà?. Certamente, disse la regina ma ragguagliare non è leggere. Anzi, è l'esatto contrario. Il ragguaglio è succinto, concreto e pertinente. La lettura è disordinata, dispersiva e sempre invitante. Il ragguaglio esaurisce la questione, la lettura la apre.

On cherche dans un livre la confirmation de ses propres convictions.

Forse, disse a Norman, leggo perché sento di dover indagare la natura degli esseri umani.

Ogni conoscenza è preziosa, che abbia o no la minima utilità per l'uomo.

Rachel was becoming adept at sensing when something was going unsaid by adults: it was as if there were an invisible object sitting amid their visible words and Rachel was learning to judge its shape and size by feel alone.

She learned what 'ohana truly meant, and that she was a part of it. She began to understand that none of this could replace or usurp the family she had always known, but only enriched what she already possessed. With wonder and a growing absence of fear she realized: I am more than I was an hour ago.

She began to understand that none of this could replace or usurp the family she had always known, but enriched what she already possessed. With wonder and a growing absence of fear she realized, I am more than I was an hour ago.

and of course Dr. Harry Hollmann, the only familiar face among them. All wore crisp white uniforms. "I have labored against many blights in my time," Dr. Currie told them, "from bubonic plague in San Francisco to yellow fever in New Orleans. Like them, leprosy at present eludes our understanding. But by volunteering at this station you are all helping to provide us with the tools and the knowledge necessary to someday, God willing, obliterate this scourge.

Less explanation is more convincing than more explanation.