Quotes About Understanding

My continuing passion is to part a curtain, that invisible shadow that falls between people, the veil of indifference to each other's presence, each other's wonder, each other's human plight. Eudora Welty

If only faces could talk....

in the absence of feedback, people will fill in the blanks with a negative. They will assume you don't care about them or don't like them.

they don't care how much you know, unless they know how much you care.

What this tells me is that facts are only the smallest components of memory.

To me, the smarter you are, the more you want to learn - Ernie Accorsi

We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us." WALT DISNEY Katherine

W]e are changed by what we read. Close that book, and you are not the same person anymore. Because of what you just read, your worldview--your understanding, your compassion for others, your ability to engage intelligently with others--has expanded a little. Books help us grow….

Art is a way of knowing what it is we actually believe.

Art is a little subversive, very subversive; it gets underneath the surface and reveals what is there; it is a Geiger counter for truth.

Words, he decided, were inadequate at best, impossible at worst. They meant too many things. Or they meant nothing at all.

If you have no faith in yourself, then have faith in the things you call truth. You know what must be done. You may not have courage or trust or understanding or the will to do it, but you know what must be done. You can't turn back. There is now answer behind you. You fear what you cannot name. So look at it and find a name for it. Turn your face forward and learn. Do what must be done. -Deth to Morgon, Prince of Hed-

I did not want to think about people. I wanted the trees, the scents and colors, the shifting shadows of the wood, which spoke a language I understood. I wished I could simply disappear in it, live like a bird or a fox through the winter, and leave the things I had glimpsed to resolve themselves without me.

When you put your hands and mind and heart into the knowing of a thing ... there is no room in you for fear.

There are no simple words. I don't know why I thought I could hide anything behind language.

Humankind is drawn to dogs because they are so like ourselves—bumbling, affectionate, confused, easily disappointed, eager to be amused, grateful for kindness and the least attention.

So I invite all of you to show our own species the same patience and compassion that we show dogs. After all, dogs seem to like us a lot, and I have the utmost respect for their opinion.

That the mental experiences of dogs aren't as complex as ours is no reason to dismiss those experiences altogether.

If "OK" meant that "it's all right to get up now," it makes sense that Pip would respond when she heard it. So if your dog Chief can pick the word sit out of the middle of a sentence, what is he to make of "Good sit" after he already sat? With Pip I got caught up in using words as if I were talking to a human, and I think other owners replicate that mistake often.1

The similarities that we share, and the differences that confuse us, are a blessing and a curse in our relationship with dogs.

The devout belief that the world is explainable is both a terrible vulnerability and a stout shield. Evil prefers it when people don't believe.

Take a note: it usually works better if you wait until I do something stupid before getting mad at me.

Knowledge is a better weapon than a sword.

Do you have any idea how much I love you?" he asked. "Enough to accept my apologies?" I suggested in a small voice. "Heck no," he said, and pushed off from the wall, stalking forward. When he reached me, he put his hands up and touched the sides of my neck with the tips of his fingers--as if I were something fragile. "No apologies from you," he told me, his voice soft enough to melt my knees and most of my other parts.