Quotes About Understanding

I began to realize that I had tended to avoid some people because of my instant conclusions about who they were and what they would have to say. I discovered that everyone, speaking honestly and openly, had important things to tell me.

At the end of the day, some authors will endure and most, including some very good ones, will not. Why do I think reading is important? It is such an effective medium between mind and mind. We think largely in words. A medium made only of words doesn't impose the barrier of any other medium. It is naked and unprotected communication. That's how you get pregnant. May you always be so.

People listen better if they feel that you have understood them. They tend to think that those who understand them are intelligent and sympathetic people whose own opinions may be worth listening to. So if you want the other side to appreciate your interests, begin by demonstrating that you appreciate theirs.

The ability to see the situation as the other side sees it, as difficult as it may be, is one of the most important skills a negotiator can possess.

If you want someone to listen and understand your reasoning, give your interests and reasoning first and your conclusions or proposals later.

the more attention that is paid to positions, the less attention is devoted to meeting the underlying concerns of the parties.

Understanding is not agreeing.

As useful as looking for objective reality can be, it is ultimately the reality as each side sees it that constitutes the problem in a negotiation and opens the way to a solution.

the ongoing relationship is far more important than the outcome of any particular negotiation.

Il y a un véritable dialogue lorsque chaque interlocuteur, dès le départ, est convaincu qu'il a quelque chose à apprendre de l'autre.

Because our attachment to control is either unexamined or addictive, we do not understand that by relinquishing control and providing choice, we increase our influence and impact many times over.

To put oneself in the position of others is an act of compassionate imagination freed from self-concern.

Gurdjieff put considerable emphasis on what he called the "instinctive sensing of reality," weak in many of us but not irretrievably so.

People of Western culture put great value on the level of a man's knowledge but they do not value the level of a man's being and are not ashamed of the low level of their own being. They do not even understand what it means.

Merton ... humbly warned, however, "It's a wrong perception to believe that you can eliminate risk just because you can measure it.

The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.…We know truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.

No doubt there are some who, when confronted with a line of mathematical symbols, however simply presented, can only see the face of a stern parent or teacher who tried to force into them a non-comprehending parrot-like apparent competence--a duty and a duty alone--and no hint of magic or beauty of the subject might be allowed to come through.

A scientific world-view which does not profoundly come to terms with the problem of conscious minds can have no serious pretensions of completeness.

I argue that the phenomenon of consciousness cannot be accommodated within the framework of present-day physical theory.

My own view is that to understand quantum nonlocality we shall require a radical new theory. This new theory will not just be a slight modification of quantum mechanics but something as different from standard quantum mechanics as general relativity is from Newtonian gravity. It would have to be something which has a completely different conceptual framework.

Sache-le, Alexandre, si tu voulais l'ignorer encore: notre amitié s'appelle l'amour!

You never forget, you never get rid of it. It sets you apart from other people. That's not to say I'm never happy. But I know the difference.

Be kind for everyone you meet carries a great burden.

Male and Female Compatibility Rules: a. She's right. b. He's really thinking about nothing. Really.