Quotes About Understanding

A poet looks at the world somewhat as a man looks at a woman.

Is there such a thing as pure unmingled poetry, poetry independent of meaning? Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.

Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge...

There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography.

Quotations will tell the full measure of meaning, if you have enough of them.

An aphorism is never exactly true. It is either a half-truth or a truth and a half.

An aphorism is a single sentence that totally exhausts its subject.

Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.

The rainbow, "the bridge of the gods," proved to be the bridge to our understanding of light — much more important.

We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that a savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.

I have a very firm grasp on reality — I can reach out and strangle it any time.

Without a single thought, two hands collide and the world finally makes sense again.

Everyone has that one thing that's totally illogical, which if you really want to love that person, you've just got to accept.

Physics is the basic science. One can easily argue that all other sciences are specialized aspects of physics.

All science has one aim, namely, to find a theory of Nature.

Every man has forgotten who he is. One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

Knowing who you are is the best defense against who they think you are.

I can never get people to understand that poetry is the expression of excited passion, and that there is no such thing as a life of passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or an eternal fever. Besides, who would ever shave themselves in such a state?

It were vain for me to endeavor to interrupt the Silence. She cannot be done into English. For six thousand years men have translated her with what fidelity belonged to each, and still she is little better than a sealed book. A man may run on confidently for a time, thinking he has her under his thumb, and shall one day exhaust her, but he too must at last be silent...

Silence is a fence around wisdom.

What shall I say to you? What can I say Better than silence is?...

We must have reasons for speech but we need none for silence.

The silent man is the best to listen to.

Silence was never written down.