Quotes About Understanding

All profound utterances have varied facets for diverse minds.

Leonardo called "the noblest pleasure, the joy of understanding.

And indeed, great men speak to us only so far as we have ears and souls to hear them; only so far as we have in us the roots, at least, of that which flowers out in them.

How little you know the age you live in, says a god in Ovid, if you fancy that honey is sweeter than cash in hand.

Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Quique metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum, Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari—

Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.

Some books are to be tasted," reads a famous passage, "others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested";

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind.

À posteriori: reasoning from observed facts to general conclusions. À priori: reasoning from general propositions to particular conclusions.

in both cases the desire for knowledge had ended bliss. Sophisticates

Science is analytical description, philosophy is synthetic interpretation.

Now began the great game of epistemology

Intolerance is the natural concomitant of strong faith; tolerance grows only when faith loses certainty; certainty is murderous.

Perhaps, within these limits, we can learn enough from history to bear reality patiently, and to respect one another's delusions.

Truth generally lies in the coördination of antagonistic opinions.

No one man, however brilliant or well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for these are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory of history.

Intelligence is no protection against strange beliefs.

The gift of story is wisdom

We build our understanding of the emotional world through the myths and legends of our culture. We are all, in part, made of fairy tales.

The only thing we'll ever really know are those electrical pulses that are sent up by our senses.

I'm thinking that, collectively, men are only slightly more observant than mollusks.

Let us face the fact: how else can we endure life on this earth unless we can achieve a large degree of tolerance of oneself and others? Life is far too painful if we are hypersensitive and look for the flaws in everything.

We've come to understand over the past hundred years that information is colored with subjectivity: What we know depends on how we interpret our information base.

I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.