Quotes About Understanding

Don't let the force of the impression when first it hits you knock you off your feet; just say to it, 'Hold on a moment; let me see who you are and what you represent.

A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him back to the right path - he does not mock and jeer at him and then take himself off. You also must show the unlearned man the truth, and you will see that he will follow. But so long as you do not show it to him, you should not mock, but rather feel your own incapacity.

Whenever someone helps or hinders you, or praises or criticizes you, remember that they see you only through the lens of their own impressions. If they act or speak from a warped perspective, they hurt themselves—not you.

Nature has given to men one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.

People are not disturbed by things themselves, but by the views they take of those things.

We have two ears and one mouth-so that we can listen twice as much as we speak

Study, not in order to add anything to your knowledge, but to make your knowledge better.

Wisdom's seat is higher; she trains not the hands, but is mistress of our minds.

Remind yourself, "What upsets this person is their opinion of what has happened. Another in the same circumstance, taking a different perspective, would react quite differently."   Do not share these thoughts with the grieving person. Sympathize with them—even cry with them. Your tears will be outward, not inward.

It is impossible to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

The man has to learn 'what each specific thing means', as Socrates often said, and stop casually applying preconceptions to individual cases.

Incerc sa le explic parintilor mei ca viata e un dar buclucas. La inceput ai tendinta sa-l supraestimezi crezand ca viata pe care ai primit-o este vesnica. Apoi, dimpotriva, il subestimezi, gasind ca-i o porcarie, scurta de nu-ntelegi nimic din ea si pe care uneori ti-ar veni s-o arunci de sa nu se vada. Abia catre sfarsit pricepi ca nu-i vorba de niciun dar, ci de un simplu imprumut. Pe care trebuie sa incerci sa-l meriti.

Demersul suprem al ratiunii este sa afle ca exista o infinitate de lucruri care o depasesc. Si e o ratiune slaba daca nu ajunge pana acolo.

Lincoln spoke of slaveholders not as reprobates and sinners but as men and women enmeshed in a system from which they could not disentangle themselves. "They are just what we would be in their situation

People instinctively turn to the past to understand the present. But the questions the historian asks are given to him or her by the world they live in.

Legibility, in practice, amounts simply to what one is accustomed to.

The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him

To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him. 71

in order to be effective a doctrine must not be understood, but has rather to be believed in. We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart.

Pascal was of the opinion that "one was well-minded to understand holy writ when one hated oneself."20 There is apparently some connection between dissatisfaction with oneself and a proneness to credulity

Education does not educate and gentle the heart.