Quotes About Understanding

Can you blame him?

conviction that we know others better than they know us—and that we may have insights about them they lack (but not vice versa)—leads us to talk when we would do well to listen and to be less patient than we ought to be when others express the conviction that they are the ones who are being misunderstood or judged unfairly.

Transparency is the idea that people's behavior and demeanor—the way they represent themselves on the outside—provides an authentic and reliable window into the way they feel on the inside. It is the second of the crucial tools we use to make sense of strangers. When we don't know someone, or can't communicate with them, or don't have the time to understand them properly, we believe we can make sense of them through their behavior and demeanor.

The conviction that we know others better than they know us - and that we may have insights about them they lack (but not vice versa) - leads us to talk when we would do well to listen and to be less patient than we ought to be when others express the conviction that they are the ones who are being misunderstood or judged unfairly.

Our ignorance of the unfamiliar is what fuels our fear.

We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.

We think we can easily see into the hearts of others based on the flimsiest clues. We jump at the chance to judge strangers. We would never do that to ourselves, of course. We are nuanced and complex and enigmatic. But the stranger is easy (p. 50)

The conviction that we know others better than they know us—and that we may have insights about them they lack (but not vice versa)—leads us to talk when we would do well to listen and to be less patient than we ought to be when others express the conviction that they are the ones who are being misunderstood or judged

We have no choice but to talk to strangers in our modern, borderless world. We aren't living in villages anymore. Police officers have to stop people they don't know. Intelligence officers have to deal with deception and uncertainty. Young people want to go to parties explicitly to meet strangers... Yet at this most necessary of tasks we are inept. We think we can transform the stranger, without cost or sacrifice, into the familiar and the known, and we can't (p. 342).

You can't hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree.

Don't condemn if you see a person has a dirty glass of water, just show them the clean glass of water that you have. When they inspect it, you won't have to say that yours is better. -said by Elijah Muhammad to Malcolm X

I saw all races, all colors, blue eyed blonds to black skinned Africans in true brotherhood! In unity! Living as one! Worshiping as one! No segregationists, no liberals; they would not have known how to interpret the meaning of those words

Ignorance of each other is what has made unity impossible in the past. Therefore we need enlightenment. We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity. Once we have more knowledge (light) about each other, we will stop condemning each other and a United front will be brought about.

The success or failure of any relationship depends not just on how we feel about each other, but on how we make each other feel about ourselves.

You cannot explain failure any more than you can argue with success.

Success Comes from listening to your customer.

If a man keeps his trap shut, the world will beat a path to his door.

You are always freed by your lucid knowledge and acceptance of your tasks.

When you seek first to develop relationships based on personal and human ground, you will surely gain interest of another party.

Life is not about receiving. It is about giving, knowing that someone might learn, understand or grow that little bit from the experience

Continuous understanding goes with love, courage, respect, discovery and acceptance of mistakes.

The road to success begins with knowing what you need to know and why

Read not only between the lines, but also what is not written.

When you connect to the silence within you, that is when you can make sense of the disturbance going on around you.