Quotes About Understanding

Going deeper into their Otherness, feeling what they feel, we can discover what makes them different and learn about human nature.

His approach in these cases was to imagine that each person, no matter how twisted, has a reason for what they've become, a logic that makes sense to them. In their own way, they are striving for fulfillment, but irrationally. By stepping back and imagining their story from the inside, Chekhov demythologized the brutes and aggressors; he cut them down to human size. They no longer elicited hatred but rather pity.

Daily Law: Think more like a writer in approaching the people you deal with, even the worst sorts.

People are of infinite complexity and you can spend a lifetime watching them without ever fully understanding them

People who cling to their delusions find it difficult, if not impossible, to learn anything worth learning: A people under the necessity of creating themselves must examine everything, and soak up learning the way the roots of a tree soak up water. —James Baldwin

If you work hard, you will make your way to the inner circle of knowledge. That is the end goal of mastery: an inside-out understanding.

Understand: the greatest impediment to creativity is your impatience, the almost inevitable desire to hurry up the process, express something, and make a splash.

If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge-a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity. Your attitude towards it will be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral. --Arthur Schopenhauer

You often do not know your friends as well as you imagine. Friends often agree on things in order to avoid an argument. They cover up their unpleasant qualities so as not offend each other. They laugh extra hard at each others jokes. Since honesty rarely strengthens friendship, you may never know how a friend truly feels. Friends will say they love your poetry, adore your music, envy your taste in clothes - maybe they mean, often they do not.

The ability to measure people and to know who you're dealing with is the most important skill of all in gathering and conserving power. Without it you are blind:

Perspective comes with time.

Emotions originate as physical arousal designed to capture our attention and cause us to take notice of something around us. They begin as chemical reactions and sensations that we must then translate into words to try to understand

Pero la fuente primaria de la inteligencia humana es el desarrollo de las neuronas espejo (ver aquí), lo que nos concede la aptitud de ponernos en los zapatos de otro e imaginar su experiencia.

A través de una exposición continua a la gente y tratando de pensar dentro de ella podemos obtener una sensación creciente de su perspectiva, pero esto requiere un esfuerzo de nuestra parte.

But it would be wise to practice instead the opposite, what the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called Mitfreude—"joying with." As he wrote, "The serpent that stings us means to hurt us and rejoices as it does so; the lowest animal can imagine the pain of others. But to imagine the joy of others and to rejoice at it is the highest privilege of the highest animals.

Tan pronto como te sientes contra mí, has dejado de comprender mi posición, ¡y por tanto mis argumentos! Tienes que ser víctima de la misma pasión".

In dealing with fools you must adopt the following philosophy: they are simply a part of life, like rocks or furniture.

People are more complex than you imagine. Your goal is to simply see their point of view better. As you go through this process, it becomes like a muscle that gets stronger the more you exercise it.

The greatest danger you face is your general assumption that you really understand people and that you can quickly judge them. Instead, you must begin with the assumption that you are ignorant and that you have natural biases that will make you judge people incorrectly. Each person you meet is like an undiscovered country, with a very particular psychological chemistry that you will carefully explore.

This should not upset you but liberate you. The book will teach you to stop taking personally their insinuating comments, shows of coldness, or moments of irritation. The more you grasp this, the easier it will be to react not with your emotions but rather with the desire to understand where their behavior might come from.

Second, the Laws will make you a master interpreter of the cues that people continually emit, giving you a much greater ability to judge their character.

An understanding of people's hidden motives is the single greatest piece of knowledge you can have in acquiring power.

clave para hacer que tus víctimas se sientan cómodas es ser su reflejo, adaptarse a sus estados de ánimo. Las personas son narcisistas; se sienten atraídas por quienes se parecen más a ellas. Hazles sentir que compartes sus valores y gustos, que comprendes su espíritu, y caerán bajo tu hechizo.

There is much to be known, life is short, and life is not life without knowledge. It is therefore an excellent device to acquire knowledge from everybody. Thus, by the sweat of another's brow, you win the reputation of being an oracle. (Baltasar Gracián, 1601-1658)