Quotes About Understanding

The idea that accounts of the past shouldn't change is a product of literate cultures' reverence for the written word. Anthropologists will tell you that oral cultures understand the past differently; for them, their histories don't need to be accurate so much as they need to validate the community's understanding of itself. So it wouldn't be correct to say that their histories are unreliable; their histories do what they need to do.

Jijingi realized that, if he thought hard about it, he was now able to identify the words when people spoke in an ordinary conversation. The sounds that came from a person's mouth hadn't changed, but he understood them differently; he was aware of the pieces from which the whole was made. He himself had been speaking in words all along. He just hadn't known it until now.

if you want to create the common sense that comes from twenty years of being in the world, you need to devote twenty years to the task. You can't assemble an equivalent collection of heuristics in less time; experience is algorithmically incompressible.

I would have liked to experience more of the heptapods' worldview, to feel the way they feel. Then, perhaps I could immerse myself fully in the necessity of events, as the must, instead of merely wading in its surf for the rest of my life.

Pur non cascando nella trappola d'incolpare Dio, non fece mai quel passo che l'avrebbe portato ad amarlo.

He understood how life was an undeserved bounty, how even the most virtuous were not worthy of the glories of the mortal plane.

A dog may understand dozens of commands, but it will never do anything but bark.

Science is not just the search for the truth," he said. "It's the search for purpose." And I had no response. I had always assumed those were one and the same, but what if they aren't? I don't know what to think now. It frightens me to imagine that you have never been listening at all.

She sees that Derek has a very different idea of high expectations than she has. More than that, she realizes that his is actually the better one. "You're right," she says, after a pause.

Comprendo la Palabra, y los medios por los que opera, y de esta forma me disuelvo

Science is not just the search for the truth," he said. "It's the search for purpose." And I had no response.

For the heptapods, all language was performative. Instead of using language to inform, they used language to actualize. Sure, heptapods already knew what would be said in any conversation; but in order for their knowledge to be true, the conversation would have to take place.

Do you now understand why I say the future and the past are the same? We cannot change either, but we can know both more fully.

mean that we cannot conduct trade. We simply need to know why they're here, and what we have that they want. Once we have that information, we can begin trade negotiations. "I should emphasize

in Nicole's mouth instead of mine?

Human activity has brought my kind to the brink of extinction, but I don't blame them for it. They didn't do it maliciously. They just weren't paying attention.

Just as we grow to understand the purpose of customs that seemed pointless to us in our youth,

Help me to understand other people's positions, Lord, even when I don't share them. At the same time, grant me the strength to not ignore wrongdoing simply because it is committed by someone who is well intentioned. Let me be compassionate while remaining true to my convictions. Amen.

Maturity means seeing the differences, but realizing they don't matter.

And as he stood there outside the bedroom door, he could hear her sobbing, on the floor paralyzed with shame, exactly the same as he had been when it was him on the other side.

The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness cannot understand it

Where is God? Where can I find him?" we ask. We don't realize that's like a fish swimming frantically through the ocean in search OF the ocean

taught that God speaks the same today as God always did, but that humans both hear and interpret what they hear differently. They imagine

This is the problem with compassion, we're compassionate to everybody except those people who aren't compassionate. You can't do it that way. How do we refrain from throwing out of our hearts even those people who we believe to be seriously misguided? How do we keep from throwing out of our hearts those people who are caught in their own fears, in their own distrusts, in their own exclusivities?