Quotes About Understanding

Some are slaves of ambition or money, but others are interested in understanding life itself. These give themselves the name philosophers, and they value the contemplation and discovery of nature beyond all other pursuits.

No son las personas las que hacen las interpretaciones sino las interpretaciones las que hacen a las personas.

Una mujer se embellece para el hombre que sabe apreciarla».

Quizá la identidad de una persona sólo pueda definirse en relación a las identidades de los demás. O quizá cualquier identidad no sea más que una interpretación de los demás

We should have loved her back, openly and without apology, but between the teen heart and the teen brain, only so much gets done.

There are so many things to say in the language of our kind, but really, nothing more needs to be said.

To know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody.

Humor I think of as the outward sign of the ability to look at events and situations from more than one point of view. It is this gift that keeps us all from living in a perpetual rage.

Tolerance is the result not of enlightenment but of boredom.

D.H. Lawrence said that it was not living life that mattered but watching it be lived. I would say that it was not watching life that mattered but explaining what you saw.

Wojna pomiÄ™dzy pÅ'ciami to jedyny konflikt, w którym obie strony sypiajÄ… z wrogiem.

If love means anything at all it means extending your hand to the unlovable.

white folks can never comprehend a situation where they can't be forgiven for past transgressions).

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit

We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.

she never asked. She waited for the shrapnel buried in his soul to work its own way to the surface.

The heart of so great a mystery cannot ever be reached by following one road only." Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (c. 345 – 402) was a Roman statesman, orator, and man of letters; from Augustine, in controversy with St. Ambrose. Quoted by Arnold Toynbee.

He whose wisdom cannot help him, gets no good from being wise.

Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.

I feel Him kiss my brow, a chill weight on my forehead. In the kiss is absolution, yes, but understanding as well. Understanding that it is He I serve, not the convent. His divine spark lives within me, a presence that will never leave. And I am but one of the many tools he has at his disposal. If I cannot act--if I refuse to act--that is a choice I am allowed to make. He has given me life, and all I must do to serve Him is live. Fully and with my whole heart.

Politics is largely a matter of heart.

That, in brief, is the problem—criticism as the first step in a discussion stops the discussion and is therefore, generally the last step as well. It is an entirely different matter if I hear the other person first, understand what she is trying to do, then talk with her about better ways to do it.

Our egos are often so hell-bent on getting our own ideas out that we can hardly wait for others to finish talking. What others are saying becomes a terrible interruption in what we are trying to say. In the process, we not only fail to understand what others are saying; we do not even hear them out. De Bono's description of parallel thinking aptly describes the kind of flow that is possible in a conversation where different ideas are allowed and encouraged:

Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it.