Quotes About Understanding

What they don't understand—and the wide world certainly does not understand—is that these reckless acts do stem from a biological need to alter their inner state. In pain, they feel compelled to seek relief immediately.

A model that explains the "itch" at the core of ADD

Lots of kids who have ADD also have something else, something we don't have a name for, something good. They can be highly imaginative and empathic, closely attuned to the moods and thoughts of the people around them, even as they are missing most of the words that are being said.

To tell a person who has ADD to try harder is about as helpful as telling someone who is nearsighted to squint harder.

The historian must have some conceptions of how men who are not historians behave.

They go forth with well-developed bodies, fairly developed minds and undeveloped hearts. An undeveloped heart-not a cold one. The difference is important.

Deberiamos respetar a los muertos y honrar lo diferentes que eran de nosotros en lugar de hacerlo para celebrar su capacidad de precedernos o la nuestra para superarlos

I've always thought of acting as more of an exercise in empathy, which is not to be confused with sympathy. You're trying to get inside a certain emotional reality or motivational reality and try to figure out what that's about so you can represent it.

If you've got a piece and you can feel the person who's going to direct it is really made for it, if it's really special for them, then it's going to be a better-than-usual experience.

When we have unified enough certain knowledge, we will understand who we are and why we are here.

Understanding and dealing correctly with the trade-off between risk and return is a fundamental, but poorly understood, challenge faced by all gamblers and investors.

Humanity is exalted not because we are so far above other living creatures, but because knowing them well elevates the very concept of life.

The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.

Social intelligence was therefore always at a high premium. A sharp sense of empathy can make a huge difference, and with it in an ability to manipulate, to gain cooperation, and to deceive.

The cost of scientific advance is the humbling recognition that reality was not constructed to be easily grasped by the human mind. This is the cardinal tenet of scientific understanding: Our species and its ways of thinking are a product of evolution, not the purpose of evolution.

Like the sunlight and the firelight that guided our birth, we need a unified humanities and science to construct a full and honest picture of what we truly are and what we can become.

It follows that most people would very much like science to prove the existence of God but not to take the measure of His capacity.

So what could the hypothetical aliens learn from us that has any value to them? The correct answer is the humanities.

The idea and its supporting logic came in pieces

Art is the lie that helps us to see the truth.

You teach me, I forget. You show me, I remember. You involve me, I understand.

The love of complexity without reductionism makes art; the love of complexity with reductionism makes science.

We are all worthy of one another.

A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it.