Quotes About Understanding

Tuning in does not mean questioning our children about every little detail of their lives. Instead, tell an interesting story from your day; they might respond with a story of their own.

Maybe we swore we would never be harsh with our children the way others were harsh with us. Then, just when they need us most - when they act up and misbehave and call us names and son on - we get angry and punish them, or feel hurt and block them out. We momentarily forget how fragile our little ones are, just as they forget about cooperation or sharing or calming down and following the rules.

One time the wife asked everyone if they wanted lemonade, and after she went in to make it, one of the children said to her husband, "Your mom is really nice." Nonparents, even if they are recognized as being adults, can be accepted as "one of the gang" in a way that parents generally can't. And children benefit from a thoughtful, respectful adult who can be seen as an ally rather than as the enemy.

The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance but to overcome it

You must protect people who have no social clout because the health of a congregation is measured by its ability to tolerate dweebs.

finding a book is no guarantee that you will understand what it means unless there is also someone there who read it to you when you were very young and who may, indeed, have it memorized." (p 154)

What first occurs to us on remembering the dream/reading the text may be the most important thing.

If the human species is differentiated from the beasts by the marvel of consciousness, then we enact our humanity and the very authenticity of our being by straining to "know" through awareness the "unthinkable" experience of others.

The aim of any literacy, and this literacy in particular, is to "empower people to choose the appropriate language for what they need to create or express.

Metaphysical speculation is independent of the physical validity of the Big Bang itself and is irrelevant to our understanding of it.

To be scientifically illiterate is to remain essentially uncultured. And the chief virtue of a cultural activity--be it art, music, literature, or science--is the way it enriches our lives.

It's a cat, but not racist.

There, there, there.

The good pupils are often brilliant, and they keep you on your toes and take you to the limits of your knowledge. The worst pupils provide a unique insight into the criminal mind.

I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them.

To possess another language is to possess another soul.

No matter how intelligent a man is, he can't see what he doesn't know how to see.

To hear, one must be silent.

Belief is the wound that knowledge heals.

All men were alien one to another, at times, not only aliens.

To which Silence of course made no reply, letting him hear what he had said and feel its foolishness thoroughly.

To claim power over what you do not understand is not wise, nor is the end of it likely to be good.

Darkness is only in the mortal eye, that thinks it sees, but sees not.

The past, for everyone, is full of missed chances, surviving to understand them, if not set them straight, is one of the things that makes the next breath worth taking.