Quotes About Understanding

A poem needs understaning through the senses. The point of diving in a lake, is not immediately to swim to the shore, but to be in the lake; to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out, it is an experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept mystery.

For all the time schools devote to the teaching of mathematics, very little (if any) is spent trying to convey just what the subject is about. Instead, the focus is on learning and applying various procedures to solve math problems. That's a bit like explaining soccer by saying it is executing a series of maneuvers to get the ball into the goal. Both accurately describe various key features, but they miss the what? and the why? of the big picture.

Strive from the outset to express yourself with such clarity that a bright twelve-year-old would understand you. Any fool can make it complicated: it takes focus to make it simple.

It is unwise to judge an argument by its least articulate proponents.

If it gets too bad, go. I'll understand." I won't.

Life experience. I can talk it up, vow to broaden my horizons, but I'm still limited to the experiences with my life. How can a person understand an experience that lies completely outside her own? She can see it, feel it, imagine what it would be like to live it, but it's no different from seeing a movie on a screen and saying, "Thank God that's not me".

Yes, I can talk and think at the same time. Most people can, though I suppose you wouldn't know that from personal experience. Elena (Bitten)

I'd always thought of myself as an open-minded person. I had no patience with anyone who put down other kids because of their race, religion, or sexuality. But that's just one kind of open-mindedness. There's another kind, too, the kind that's willing to see people for who they really are and admit when you were wrong about them. That's the part I still need to work on.

I could only stare, any sense that maybe I understood him evaporating as it always did. I'd glimpse something underneath, and he'd snatched it away so fast it left bruises that called me a fool for hoping for more.

Making me choose? Darling, we live with the guy. We share a house, bank accounts, even vacations. We're never alone and I've never heard you utter one word of complaint. You have never asked me to choose, and you have no idea how grateful I am for that, because if I ever had to pick, it would be you, no matter what that meant for the Pack.

I put you through hell and then I only made it worse, all the mistakes I made trying to get you back.' 'I've forgiven you.' 'Forgive, yes. Understand, yes. Forget, no.

He looked at me. I do know how to deal with demons, Savannah. I know. Sorry. So I get a hug? No, but I won't smack you, and we'll call it even.

I understood that now. I wished I could have understood it then. I wished I could have said something in that last moment, before he let go. He'd told me it was okay. His last words to me. Why couldn't they have been my last words to him?

Comfort and reassurance and a wordless understanding that there is always darkness. In some part of us, there is absolute darkness, as much as we wish otherwise. As much as we pretend otherwise. Anders shifts

I had no patience with anyone who put down other kids because of their race, religion, or sexuality. But that's just one kind of open-mindedness. There's another kind, too, the kind that's willing to see people for who they really are and admit when you were wrong about them.

God, it's like talking to a cyborg sometimes. You pretend to listen, but really, you've just gone on pause, waiting for me to stop so you can reiterate your original point.

He watched as her sister read it. Watched as her face crumpled, as her shoulders shook. Ashy. Caught her and held her, and they fell against each other.

I stopped short and sighed as Derek stepped up behind me, arms sliding around my waist. I leaned back against him and relaxed. "Thought I told you to come home," he said, bending to my ear. There was no trace of anger in his voice now. "Did you really expect me to listen?" Now it was his turn to sigh. "Always worth a shot."

I'm not stupid--" "God forbid," he muttered. "What's that supposed to mean?" "Just agreeing. You're not stupid.

She texted to say she was fine." "Then she is." Impatient now. "Just because she said she's fine doesn't mean she is, Gabriel." Silence. Ricky could imagine him struggling to process the possibility. There were guys in the gang who joked that Don had hired a cyborg who did a remarkably lifelike impersonation of an actual human. Gabriel wasn't robotic. He just wasn't exactly personable. Or emotionally literate.

That's personal?" "Sometimes, with you, I think 'Would you like fries with that?' is too personal.

I suspect I could spend every evening this week with you and I wouldn't know you any better than I do right now." "Sure you would. Anything you want to know, I'll tell you." "That's the key word, isn't it? What I want to know. Not necessarily the truth." His lips twitched with what looked like genuine amusement. "Are you calling me a poseur? I should be offended.

You've found out something else. Something about you, not me." "Does your new bag of tricks include mind reading?" He laughed. "Only when it comes to you, Maya.

I wanted to try rescuing her anyway, but she said no." "Too bad dogs can't talk," Sam said. I glanced over at her. "Um, we're all feeling bad about Hayley," Corey said. "Don't interrupt by wishing we could question the dog.