Quotes About Understanding

and I had a great curiosity to talk to the books, as I thought they did; and so to learn how all things had a beginning: for that purpose I have often taken up a book, and have talked to it, and then put my ears to it, when alone, in hopes it would answer me; and I have been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.

But what a language this was! For a foreigner, English is like a huge building which one has to get to know and, as somebody remarked, the closer you come to it, the taller and more daunting it appears. (One sign of its sheer size was that my best two-volume English—Russian dictionary contained 160,000 entries, compared with only 60,000 in a French—Russian dictionary of similar scope.)

Perhaps it's only those who don't know us at all who are able to see us most clearly.

It was like pointillism: Stand too close, and it makes no sense. Step far enough back, and you can see it. Maybe.

had to blink in pain. "What is

She would push and push on that one question until a crack formed in the wall of her ignorance.

Wind against window—let the words fight it out— As I try to remember: What is it That's so late in coming? What was it I understood so well last night, so well it kissed me, Sweetly, on the forehead?

The best conversations are with yourself. At least there's no risk of a misunderstanding.

Everything will pass. The wise Man knows this from the start, and has no regrets.

Speaking does harm, sows confusion and weakens things that are obvious. Speaking makes me tremble inside. I don't think I have ever said anything really important in my entire life -- there's a lack of words for the most important things anyway. (I must make a list of missing words -- top of it I'll put a verb that means something in between "I sense" and "I see.")

Drawing is never reproducing - in order to see, you have to know how to look, and you have to know what you're looking at.

We have a view of the world, but Animals have a sense of the world, do you see?

If people could read the same books, they would inhabit the same world.

In a certain sense this was true, and truth is always true in a certain sense;

For the best conversations are with yourself. At least there's no risk of a misunderstanding.

Historie ?ycia nie s? tematem do dyskusji. Powinno si? ich wys?ucha? i zrewan?owa? si? tym samym.

ograniczenie umys?owe i okrucie?stwo ludzkie nie zna granic.

Prawda jest jak s?kacz, sk?ada si? z wielu warstw, które kr?c? si? wokó? siebie, raz siebie zawieraj?, a raz same s? zawierane przez inne. Prawda to jest co?, co mo?na wyra?a? wieloma opowie?ciami, bo jest jak ten ogród, do którego weszli m?drcy: ka?dy widzia? co innego.

You know what, sometimes it seems to me we're living in a world that we fabricate for ourselves. We decide what's good and what isn't, we draw maps of meanings for ourselves . . . And then we spend our whole lives struggling with what we have invented for ourselves. The problem is that each of us has our own version of it, so people find it hard to understand each other.

every single Person has their own expression which he or she overuses. Or uses incorrectly. These words or phrases are the key to their intellect. Mr. "Apparently," Mr. "Generally," Mrs. "Probably," Mr. "Fucking," Mrs. "Don't You Think?," Mr. "As If.

There are some things we may not understand, but we can sense them perfectly well.

we discussed the function of defense mechanisms and found that we were humbled by the power of that portion of our psyche, we began to understand that if it weren't for rationalization, sublimation, denial—all the little tricks we let ourselves perform—if instead we simply saw the world as it was, with nothing to protect us, honestly and courageously, it would break our hearts.

Mówi? do kogo?, kto nie rozumie, to próbowa? otworzy? zamek ?d?b?em trawy, to kroi? chleb ga??zk? bazylii, wkr?ca? ?arówk? w ptasie gniazdo, wk?ada? dyskietk? mi?dzy dwa kamienie.

How wonderful – to translate from one language to another, and by so doing to bring people closer to one another – what a beautiful idea.