Quotes About Understanding

A method involving apparent obscurity is surely justified when it is the clearest, the simplest, the only method possible of saying in full what the writer has to say

I would rather have to extract information from the devil himself than from a child.

It is a fact that it takes experience before one can realize what is a catastrophe and what is not. Children have little faculty of distinguishing between disaster and the ordinary course of their lives.

It would have surprised Mrs. Thornton very much to have been told that hitherto she had meant practically nothing to her children. She took a keen interest in Psychology (the Art Babblative, Southey calls it). She was full of theories about their upbringing which she had not time to put into effect; but nevertheless she thought she had a deep understanding of their temperaments and was the center of their passionate devotion.

We do not have to have the correct answers to listen well. In fact, often the correct answers are a hindrance to listening well, for we become more anxious to give the correct answer than to hear.

Sorting out which prejudices are to be criticized or rejected is not the beginning point of inquiry, but an end product, an achievement of inquiry.

It is agreeable to imagine a future in which the tiresome 'analytic–Continental split' is looked back upon as an unfortunate, temporary breakdown of communication – a future in which Sellars and Habermas, Davidson and Gadamer, Putnam and Derrida, Rawls and Foucault, are seen as fellow-travelers on the same journey, fellow-citizens of what Michael Oakeshott called a civitas pelegrina. (Rorty 1997a, pp. 11–12)

recent research has shown that when we empathize, the brain activates many of the same networks as when we ourselves experience pain, physical or otherwise.

If we are a people rich in social relationships, we are rich indeed. Whenever we develop significant friendships with those who are not like us culturally, we become broader, wiser persons.

And so the test of whether or not we have really gotten the point of the Bible would then be the quality of love that we show.

Study cannot happen until we are subject to the subject.

will not break a bruised reed, or quench a smoldering wick" (Isa. 423; Matt. 12:20).

Remember that the key to the Discipline of study is not reading many books, but experiencing what we do read.

The tongue is our most powerful weapon of manipulation. A frantic stream of words flows from us because we are in a constant process of adjusting our public image. We fear so deeply what we think other people see in us that we talk in order to straighten out their understanding.

Labor to work yourself up into a temper correspondent with what you read, for that reading is useless which only enlightens the understanding without warming the affections. And therefore intersperse, here and there, earnest aspirations to God for his heat as well as his light." —John Wesley, "Advice for Spiritual Reading"3

He that studies only men, will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body. He that to what he sees, adds observation, and to what he reads, reflection, is in the right road to knowledge, provided that in scrutinizing the hearts of others, he neglects not his own. —CALEB COLTON

Teach me patience, Lord, and continue to stretch my understanding of who you are and how you work in the world. Continue to cultivate within me the humility to know that your way is best. Amen. For

Remember that God's intention is that we each come to a fuller knowledge of him as we deepen our personal fellowship with one another." —Richard J. Foster and others, eds., The Life with God Bible 4

It is only because of your love, only your love, that the poor will forgive you the bread you give them.

Father God, you sent your Son to this earth that we may be one, and yet we fail so miserably. We look out for our own interests first and put your work last. We allow ourselves to be separated by jealousy and bitterness and misunderstanding. Forgive us for our failures. Teach us to hold Jesus before us always, with the knowledge and understanding that only through him can our fellowship work and magnify your name. Amen.

We would do well to come to the Bible with these words ringing in our ears: 'You have heard it said . . . but I say to you . . .

In trying to think through what is happening and why and in trying to understand thereby what ought to be done, the nation's social scientists and journalists and politicians seek explanations.

But there can be no real progress in solving America's social problems when they are as misperceived as they are today. What good can come of understanding the relationship of intelligence to social structure and public policy? Little good can come without it.

That the word intelligence describes something real and that it varies from person to person is as universal and ancient as any understanding about the state of being human.