Quotes About Insight

Sometimes it takes a very long while to figure things out.

Our whole business therefore in this life," wrote Saint Augustine, rather Yogically, "is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen.

Because I happen to think that being sensitive is the most valuable form of intelligence there is.

What no one else sees, no one else cares about.

So, did you need to hear that? Did you really need to know more?' Xas asked. 'Yes. It's always better to know more.' 'God help you,' Xas said with feeling.

It's the reward of the business (historian), to look history in the eye & say, 'I know who you are. You can't fool me.

The study of history should be our preparation for understanding the present, rather than an escape from it.

And once you've seen that truth - really seen it - you can't look away.

It's the reward of the business, to look history in the eye and say, 'I know who you are. You can't fool me.

every catastrophe can hand us exactly what we need to awaken into who we really are.

Other people's happiness is always a fascinating bore. It sucks the oxygen out of the room; you're left gasping, greedy, amazed by a deficit in yourself you hadn't ever noticed.

Siempre pensaba que mis preguntas eran preguntas equivocadas porque nadie más las preguntaba. Tal vez no se les ocurrieron a nadie. Tal vez la oscuridad llegó allí primero. Tal vez yo soy la primera luz que toca un golfo de ignorancia. Tal vez mis preguntas importan.

it forces concentration, and thus opens up the world.

They're called cliches because they're true, you know. Besides, life is quite complicated enough...

I knew the answer, and--of course--so did Ramses. He has superb breath control and always gets in ahead of me.

He had the mouth of a shark and the eyes of a poet. I felt an immediate rapport - with the shark, as well as the poet.

Wissen Sie, was das für ein Segen ist, die Werke eines Dichters zu lesen, seinen Geist zu kennen, das Beste an ihm, und dabei so entfernt von seiner Heimat, seiner Lebensgeschichte oder seinen Briefen zu leben, dass alles Geschwätz über sein Privatleben und Kritik an seiner Moral nicht zu mir gedrungen ist?

If you weren't here I wouldn't see it, said Ingram, firmly believing it in the face of the fact that nothing ever escaped his acute vision. I see all this only through you. You are my eyes. Without you I go blind, I grope about with the light gone out. You don't know what you are to me, you little shining crystal thing—you don't begin to realise it, my dear, my dear sweet Found-at-Last.

We are neither of us wise, but it is surprising how talking to a friend, even to a friend as unwise as yourself, clears up your brains and lets in new light.

Oh, Ma, you're looking at all the trees, and I'm not even in the forest.

Depression gave me extreme perspicacity; rather than skin, it was as if I had only thin gauze bandages to shield me from everything I saw.

Books, the books that I loved above all else to spend my time with, were the great tools for understanding one's life and the lives of other people.

When she thinks a book is very good, what she says to herself is: yes, that's how things are. I hadn't thought of it before, but that's how things are.

When you truly understand one thing—a hawk, a juniper tree, a rock—you will begin to understand everything.