Quotes About Understanding

Du bist nicht ein Ziel für mich, Du bist tausend Ziele... und ich... führe Dir alles zu bei meinem Dir-entgegengehn.

It was like the old joke: the operation was a success but the patient died. Theories and goals of education don't matter a whit if you don't consider your students to be human beings.

From the first two-hour class on, I had not said a word. I wanted them to know a little bit of what it is like to be deaf: lost, confused, unable to communicate.

If the students didn't understand the charade, I'd turn and write on the blackboard, but I tried to avoid even that. I didn't want the students automatically translating everything from sign to English—that slowed the process.

This work was throwing me into the intimate functioning of people's lives.

One of the criticisms leveled at deaf people is that they're rigid thinkers. For

Tell Doris Jean I figure it's about time I learned that sign language,

And there is also a camp of compromise—those who favor "total communication," or signing while speaking in full sentences.

I have talked and listened and heard and there is no me!

Less and less we were freaks. More and more we were curiosities.

For so long I'd been doing what I'd accused other people of doing—I was seeing the deafness, not the people.

For the first time, it hit me that my mother and father were deaf.

In sign language, conversations like these are unbelievably hard. You must look directly at the person as you talk to him, and as he talks to you. You can't avert your eyes to relieve the tension.

We were speaking in feelings. Words were not enough.

That was another thing hearing people did—made too-large movements. It was tantamount to shouting.)

Don't tell your problems to people: eighty percent don't care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.

The problem with having a sense of humor is often that people you use it on aren't in a very good mood.

Showing a photograph of a brain lit-up in a certain way, and claiming that this "explains" samadhi, is like showing a picture of a tree lit-up in a certain way, and claiming that this "explains" Christmas.

Music is the greatest communication in the world. Even if people don't understand the language that you're singing in, they still know good music when they hear it.

I think it's important that people don't feel alone.

And no kinds of love are better than others. Some Kinda Love

I'll be your mirror, Reflect what you are, In case you don't know. I'll Be Your Mirror

Knowledge counts but common sense matters.

We'll talk to them in Spanish and if they don't understand us, we'll say it louder and slower, and shake our heads because how stupid can you be not to be able to speak such a simple language.