Quotes About Understanding

writing this book, I wanted to understand more fully how Baldwin navigated his disappointments, how he lived his refusal to chase windmills any longer, and how he maintained his faith that all of us, even those who saw themselves as white, could still be better. I needed to understand how he harnessed his rage and lived his faith.

Don't Hate me. Don't Love me. Just be my friend.

Loves is nature. Loves come first in a relationship. You have no time for me. I can't force you to give me time. Loves don't need words. Loves it shows by itself. Loves breaks the impossible.

Some white people hate black people, and some white people love black people, some black people hate white people, and some black people love white people. So you see it's not an issue of black and white, it's an issue of Lovers and Haters.

The only shadow thrown by a devoted friendship, Brendon, is the knowledge that it must some day come to an end....Yet who would deny himself the glory of friendship, before the menace that it must sooner or later finish? A close amity and understanding, a discovery of kindred spirits, is the most precious experiences within the reach of mankind.

I used to think that if I could talk to the spirit world, I'd get some answers. Ha bloody ha. I wish the dead would just come out and say what they mean instead of being so passive-aggressive about the whole thing.

You can put your strength down. I'm sitting here with you at your kitchen table. You don't need to say anything.

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

The best way to protect me from your hate, is not to create it.

Thus the purpose of each experience is that the entity may magnify and glorify that which is good. For, good is of the one source, God, and is eternal.Then as an individual entity magnifies that which is good, and minimizes that which is false, it grows in grace, in knowledge, in understanding.

To continue to condemn only brings condemnation, then, for self. This does not mean that self's activity should be passive, but rather being constant in prayer--knowing and taking, knowing and understanding that he that is faithful is not given a burden beyond that he is able to bear . . .

Then--in correcting the entity--do not ever break the entity's will! Reason with the entity, for the mental ability and aspects will incline to make the entity become stubborn, if there is the attempt to force or to cause the entity to act in any direction or manner "just because." Tell [the entity] why!

There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, it doesn't behoove any of us to speak evil of the rest of us

In every person of whatever station look not for things to criticize, but for something you adore in your Creator.

For as we forgive, we are forgiven; as we condemn others, we are ourselves condemned. Thus in patience condemn not, neither find fault; not condoning, not agreeing, but let thine own life so shine that others, seeing thy patience, knowing thy understanding, comprehending thy peace, may take hope.

Know that the fault ye find in others is a reflection of a fault in thyself. Be to others just as you would have others be to thee, and ye will remove much of that.

But the less one thinks of self's opinions, and the better listener one becomes, greater may be the opportunities for being of help or benefit to those about the entity.

Anyone can find fault. It is the wise person who finds that which encourages another in the turmoils and strifes of the day.

Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.

We were created to look at one another, weren't we

C'est vrai. Voilá quelqu'un qui sent comme moi. (It is true. There is someone who feels as I do).

My art, what do you want to say about it? Do you think you can explain the merits of a picture to those who do not see them? . . . I can find the best and clearest words to explain my meaning, and I have spoken to the most intelligent people about art, and they have not understood; but among people who understand, words are not necessary, you say humph, he, ha and everything has been said.

I'm sorry for him who cannot hear what the tall trees have to say.

Empathy One is to listen for and be curious about the actual situation or problem that the client is describing.