Quotes About Understanding

I can't look at a stranger's face and think, She's smiling just like Amy. When Amy smiles like that she's happy, so this person is probably happy, too. Instead, I watch and evaluate, with a slightly anxious feeling. It's as if I have to build a behavior database for every single person I meet in life. When I encounter someone for the first time, the slate is blank and I don't know what to expect.

So is there a cure?' I asked. 'It's not a disease,' he explained. 'It doesn't need curing. It's just how you are

When I act politely, I build a reserve of goodwill in others. That reserve allows those people to cut me some slack when I do something annoying.

Girls are the trickiest and most unpredictable creatures a fellow like me will ever talk to.

But were we so different, my pug and I?

Even at five, I was beginning to understand the world of things better than the world of people.

can certainly see someone's actions over a period of time, and I will come to care for that person in response to how he or she acts toward me.

Individuals are labeled "different," "geeky," "abnormal," or even "Aspergian" or "autistic" at a young age. Among other things, these labels suggest that the people around them—their family, friends, teachers, and counselors—can't relate to their actions and expressions.

learning how to get along with other people is vital for our own success and happiness.

Had I not been drawn out by interested grown-ups, I might well have drifted farther into the world of autism. I might have ceased to communicate.

You would not ask someone with a broken arm to swim the English Channel, so you cannot demand that the broken to live as if they were whole.

It is fatal to suppose the great writer was too wise or too profound for us ever to understand him; to think of art so is not to praise but to murder it, for the next step after that tribute will be neglect of the masterpiece.

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.

The intelligent man makes certain reservations as to the choice of his listeners.

There came over me a terrifying sense of understanding about the meaning and the pathetic destiny of men. The desert was always there, a patient white animal, waiting for men to die, for civilizations to flicker and pass into the darkness.

There came over me a terrifying sense of understanding about the meaning and the pathetic destiny of men. It was always there, a patient white animal, waiting for them to die, for civilizations to flicker and pass into the darkness. Then men seemed brave to me, and I was proud to be numbered among them. All the evil of the world seemed not evil at all, but inevitable and good and part of that endless struggle to keep the desert down.

They were pals, he and God, and God was a good sport.

We talked, she and I. She asked about my work and it was a pretense, she was not interested in my work. And when I answered, it was a pretense. I was not interested in my work either. There was only one thing that interested us, and she knew it. She had made it plain by her coming.

Sometimes in life, you make a mistake and there's no buts and no explanations … There's no peace in 'I'm sorry, but.' You can't find peace until you truly understand that the only thing to say is, 'I'm sorry,' period. ~ John Lucas, as quoted in 'The Punch' by John Feinstein

Jefferson determined the lodestar that lay hidden in the motivations of others

If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

You're an Apprentice! You're not ready to think!" Gilan and Halt. The Ruins of Gorlan.

Will raised both eyebrows. 'Well, you learn a new thing everyday,' he said reflectively. 'In your case, that's no exaggeration,' Halt said, completely straight-faced.

Halt! How are you? What have you been doing? Where's Abelard? How's Crowley? What's this all about?" "I'm glad to see you rate my horse more important than our Corps Commandant," Halt said, one eyebrow rising in the expression that Will knew so well. Early in their relationship, he had thought it was an expression of displeasure. He had learned years ago that it was, for Halt, the equivalent of a smile.