Quotes About Understanding

He remained silent because silence was the only space large enough to hold it without crushing or bruising the heart of it.

Some people cannot think themselves into anyone else's pain. If they don't feel it themselves, then it isn't real.

I know," Daniel agreed. "Thank you for the bacon sandwiches." Mercy smiled. "There are times when it's the only thing that works.

I don't expect answers from anyone. The most I ever hope for is that here and there one may find someone who at least acknowledges the question!

Remember, my dear, you are dealing with the world as it is, not as you believe, maybe rightly, that it ought to be. There will be a great many things you can achieve not by attacking them but with a little patience and a modicum of flattery

Who knows the colors someone else sees?

enough to get someone to tell him the

You don't just tell horses, you know. They got minds o' their own, like anybody else.

I can't think of anything worse than for the person you love most in the world to take their own life, without warning you, and without explaining anything at all as to why

I didn't realize what a—comfortless thing respect is.

He was one of the vast numbers of people who cannot imagine themselves into the class or gender, least of all the emotions, of a different person. That is lack of vision or sensitivity, even compassion, but it is not stupidity.

It is a uniquely distressing experience to see yourself only through the eyes of others, too often those you have injured in some way, to know irrefutably what you have done but not why you did it, not the mitigating circumstances, the beliefs you held at the time which made your actions seem reasonable then.

nonsenses to them that reminded her of

I've been wondering how much of a person is on the surface, how much we really know about anyone at all. We don't really know very much about each other, never mind those with whom we have only an acquaintanceship.

She had a certain pity for people who wavered, she entirely understood fear. . . .

take a great deal closer look at others, and then decide with whom you would, or could, change places, and what sacrifice of your nature you would be prepared to make in order to do so.

But experience had taught her that such arguments failed. You cannot tell people to take into account what they do not wish to know. She

but putting her arms around him, telling him she loved him, were only palliative, on the surface, and she knew better than to pretend they reached the hurt.

How do you forgive someone for not being what you wanted them to be, or what you thought they were? Especially when they are not sorry—perhaps they don't even understand?" "Or again, perhaps they do?" Hester suggested. "And how do they forgive us for having expected too much of them, instead of looking to see what they really were, and loving that?

Because being in love with someone is not the same as knowing them

Every one of them had been somebody's son, somebody's friend. Grant rubbed his hands over his face and drew in a long breath, letting it out in a sigh. "Perhaps Tallis did go mad, poor bastard. I hate this more

That it's easy to forgive those you like? That is the test, isn't it…forgiving those you don't like? Especially those who have hurt someone you love. Anyone can do the easy things.

When you live in another land, Mr. Pitt, no matter how strange it may seem at first, it is a very short time until its people become your own, and their grief and their laughter touches you as deeply. All the differences on earth are a shadow, compared with the sameness.

What is it? That you are imperfect, too? Like the rest of us? Victor, did you suppose I did not know you've made errors, mistakes, and perhaps worse? If not, what would we have in common? You might forgive my flaws, but you would never understand them. There would always be blemishes you would prefer were not there. Can you really forgive, if you have no need to be forgiven?