Quotes About Understanding

I knew all this, I understood the rules, but still, nothing broke my heart like the slow death of a shared joke that had once seemed genuinely funny.

It was one thingfor a person who didn't really know me to act distant, but it was quite another for someone to get to know me and then back away.

It was one thing for a person who didn't really know me to act distant, but it was quite another for someone to get to know me and then to back away.

she was at times most able to enjoy her family members when she could sense their presence nearby without actually interacting with them.

People recognized you or they didn't, and it was unrelated to knowing you. Knowing you could just be your name or the street you lived on, your father's job. Recognizing you was understanding you had thoughts in your head, finding the same things funny or excruciating, remembering what you'd said months or even years after you'd said

When you are the object of a person's affection, do you naturally credit him with a sympathetic heart and an understanding of the world? Perhaps your impression is right only insofar as it applies to you; in his presence, he is indeed possessed of these qualities for the very reason that you are the object of his affection. He is not observant so much as observant of you, not kind so much as kind toward you.

No, we were still in the same room, both of us having to breathe and speak in the aftermath of her wink.

I accidentally knew all the words.

Recognizing you was understanding you had thoughts in your head, finding the same things funny or excruciating, remembering what you'd said months or even years after you'd said it.

We have to make mistakes. It's how we learn compassion for others." She paused.

You never know the nature of another couple's marriage, do you?

Just so I understand—" Noah Brewster said, and the confusion on his face made me wonder if he'd turn out to be one of the ding-dongs.

I have always found the times when another person recognizes you to be strangely sad; I suspect the pathos of these moments is their rareness, the way they contrast with most daily encounters. That reminder that it can be different, that you need not go through your life unknown but that you probably still will -- that is the part that's almost unbearable.

What the theologian shrinks from, the poet grasps intuitively.

To be a good writer, become a good listener.

I felt sorry for Yoko, who must have longed for her daughter, but at the same time I wondered whether John had made some kind of odd pact with her—I won't see my child until you see yours. It was the only explanation I could think of for his neglect of Julian.

kids with special needs are kids. They may have unusual challenges in their lives, but they have the same needs as other children—to be part of the group, to have friends, to play, to feel successful.

All she knew was that his smile lit up the morning as the rising sun does. For a moment, looking at his face, it was as if her ribs were empty, hollow, as if the world had stopped forever while she looked into his eyes as blue as the bellflowers that grew wild across the meadows. For a moment, just until her beating heart had returned to her chest, Birle had thought she understood everything about herself she had never understood before.

It took another time, more waves rolling up, to understand that he had no idea what it would be like to live without fear at his elbow, warning him, keeping him safe, keeping him frightened.

How can something get you thinking the wrong way, if you know how to think the right way?' Sammy asked.

And so I was. I can put on the cloak of the world I find myself in, however I happen to find myself in it. I can sing any man's tune, and you'd believe me. That's my gift." Birle knew this wasn't a gift he honored.

The rest of them were pretty sure they understood things, and that made them bad listeners.

Yet falling in love is not the same as being able to love.

For even satire is a form of sympathy.