Quotes About Understanding

This was a man, she thought, a man of complete manness. This was the kind of a man that a pure woman would want to have because he wouldn't even want to be part woman. He would be content with his own sex. He wouldn't ever try to understand women and that would be a relief. He would just take what he wanted from them.

What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately.

Sometimes a sad man can talk the sadness right out through his mouth. Sometimes a killin' man can talk the murder right out of his mouth an' not to no murder. You done right. Don't you kill nobody if you can help it.

I've heard two ways of looking at it. One says the silent man is the wise man & the other that a man without words is a man without thought. Naturally I favor the second! ~ East of Eden

No men really know about other human beings. The best you can do is to suppose that they are like himself.

Almost instinctively he went about learning the truth and at the same time disbelieved it.

Lee asked, "How does Mrs. Hamilton feel about the paradoxes of the Bible?" "Why, she does not feel anything because she does not admit they are there." "But—" "Hush, man. Ask her. And you'll come out of it older but not less confused." Adam

You can't hate men if you know them.

I will know from your talk whether I can offer an honest opinion or whether it is better to reassure you in your own.

What do I want in a doctor? Perhaps more than anything else—a friend with special knowledge.

Her face looked for the answer that is always concealed in language.

I remember thinking how wise a man was HC Andersen. The king told his secrets down a well, and his secrets were safe. A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers. Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure. Some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh of prejudice. Some paint it with their own delight.

and God accepted Abel and rejected Cain. I never thought that was a just thing. I never understood it. Do you?" "Maybe we think out of a different background," said Lee. "I remember that this story was written by and for a shepherd people. They were not farmers. Wouldn't the god of shepherds find a fat lamb more valuable than a sheaf of barley? A sacrifice must be the best and most.

There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension

Sometimes it helps to pick out one person-a real person you know, or an imagined person-and write to that one.

Does anyone ever know even the outer fringe of another?

Juana, glancing secretly at him, saw him smile. And because they were in some way one thing and one purpose, she smiled with him. And they began this day with hope.

sorrow is the mother of a general compassion

Look here," said Will. "When a man comes to me for advice about an idea, I know he doesn't want advice. He wants me to agree with him. And if I want to keep his friendship I tell him his idea is fine and go ahead. But I like you and you're a friend of my family, so I'm going to stick my neck out.

An' Grandpa didn' die tonight. He died the minute you took 'im off the place. You sure a that? Pa cried Why, no. Oh he was breathin', Casy went on, but he was dead. He was that place, an' he knowed it.

The shame of their ignorance was too great for the children.

Her full face was not soft; it was controlled, kindly. Her hazel eyes seemed to have experienced all possible tragedy and to have mounted pain and suffering like steps into a high calm and a superhuman understanding.

I know what you hate. You hate something in them you can't understand. You don't hate their evil. You have the good in them you can't get at. I wonder what you want, what final thing.

Daca nu poti vedea sau auzi sau atinge un om, e mai bine sa-l lasi in pace.