Understanding Quotes

We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must serve before we can lead.

A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.

Women are like tricks by sleight of hand, Which, to admire, we should not understand

You don't need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding.

Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.

There are kinds of action, for good or ill, that lie so far outside the boundaries of normal behavior that they force us, in acknowledging that they have occurred, to restructure our own understanding of reality. We have to make room for them.

It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding.

O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.

If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee.

The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.

Thought is more important than art. To revere art and have no understanding of the process that forces it into existence, is finally not even to understand what art is.

Our spirits have their own private way of understanding each other, of becoming intimate, while our external persons are still trapped in the commerce of ordinary words, in the slavery of social rules. Souls have their own needs and their own ambitions, which the body ignores when it sees that it's impossible to satisfy them or achieve them.

Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.

Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.

Understanding a people's culture exposes their normalness without reducing their particularity...It renders them accessible: setting them in the frame of their own banalities, it dissolves their opacity.

There were several ways of understanding her: there was what she said, and there was what she meant, and there was something between the two, that was neither.

One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.

People of little understanding are most apt to be angry when their sense is called into question.

But history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavor toward better understanding.

When two people decide to get a divorce, it isn't a sign that they 'don't understand' one another, but a sign that they have, at last, begun to.

If each man or woman could understand that every other human life is as full of sorrows, or joys, or base temptations, of heartaches and of remorse as his own . . . how much kinder, how much gentler he would be.

I admit that I myself am far from having a complete command of every topic I touch on, but my knowledge of my subject is always greater than the interest or the understanding of my auditors. You see, there is one very good thing about mankind; the mediocre masses make very few demands of the mediocrities of a higher order, submitting stupidly and cheerfully to their guidance

Understanding is a two-way street.

No, I don't understand my husband's theory of relativity, but I know my husband and I know he can be trusted.

Never be possessive. If a female friend lets on that she is going out with another man, be kind and understanding. If she says she would like to go out with the Dallas Cowboys, including the coaching staff, the same rule applies.

Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes.

You will learn most things by looking, but reading gives understanding. Reading will make you free.

We understand now, we've been made to understand, and to embrace the understanding that who we are is who we were.

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.

To seek understanding before taking action, yet to trust my instincts when action is called for. Never to avoid danger from fear, never to seek out danger for its own sake. Never to conform to fashion from fear of eccentricity, never to be eccentric from fear of conformity.

Understanding, as we understand it, is misunderstanding.

It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.

In all your getting, get understanding.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

Reverie is when ideas float in our mind without reflection or regard of the understanding.

Thinking, understanding, reasoning, willing, call not these Soul They are its actions, but they are not its essence.

Unless we remember we cannot understand.

All our work, our whole life is a matter of semantics, because words are the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made, out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our understanding of them.

History is contemporary. Your understanding of history confirms what you think of the present. It's not neutral. I would be very surprised if people with a different view of the present, don't take issue with my view of the past. I just hope that people deal with the content of the film.

Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts

Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance.

Risk discomfort and solitude for understanding.

It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.

The way I see things, the way I see life, I see it as a struggle. And there's a great deal of reward I have gained coming to that understanding - that existence is a struggle.

It isn't until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are - not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within - that you can begin to take control.

Without knowledge and understanding, one tends to become a passive spectator rather than an active participant in the great decisions of our time.

A man is given the choice between loving women and understanding them.

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.

I was to discover that the quest for human understanding is a lifetime one that has no end in sight.

Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.

The tendency of philosophers who know nothing of machinery is to talk of man as a mere mechanism, intending by this to imply that he is without purpose. This shows a lack of understanding of machines as well as of man.

If people have a basic understanding of right from wrong, possess a strong desire to better themselves and persist in there cause, they can break the chain of any negative environment.

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.

The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.

We read literature for a lot of reasons, but two of the most compelling ones are to get out of ourselves and our life stories and "“ equally important "“ to find ourselves by understanding our own life stories more clearly in the context of others.

We can love someone without understanding that person.

The human crisis is always a crisis of understanding: what we genuinely understand we can do.

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.

When men take pleasure in feeling their minds elevated with strong drink, and so indulge their appetite as to disorder their understandings, neglect their duty as members of a family or civil society, and cast off all regard to religion, their case is much to be pitied.

Happiness is understanding that friendship is more precious than mere things, more precious than getting your own way, more precious than being in situations where true principles are not at stake.

The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul.

The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.

...weary of k knowing too much and understanding too little.

It is in our genes to understand the universe if we can, to keep trying even if we cannot, and to be enchanted by the act of learning all the way.

A clear understanding of negative emotions dismisses them.

When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely - the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears- when you give your whole attention to it.

Understanding the laws of nature does not mean that we are immune to their operations.

Understanding is often a prelude to forgiveness, but they are not the same, and we often forgive what we cannot understand (seeing nothing else to do) and understand what we cannot pardon.

And verily, a woman need know but one man well, in order to understand all men; whereas a man may know all women and understand not one of them.

Heat and animosity, contest and conflict, may sharpen the wits, although they rarely do; they never strengthen the understanding, clear the perspicacity, guide the judgment, or improve the heart.

If you want to be listened to, you should put in time listening.

I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

Psychoanalysis has changed American psychology from a diagnostic to a therapeutic science, not because so many patients are cured by the psychoanalytic technique, but because of the new understanding of psychiatric patients it has given us, and the new and different concept of illness and health.

It takes a long time to understand nothing.

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

The proper route to an understanding of the world is an examination of our errors about it.

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

I want, by understanding myself, to understand others. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming.

Knowledge is simply a kind of fuel; it needs the motor of understanding to convert it into power.

Understanding can overcome any situation, however mysterious or insurmountable it may appear to be.

Peace is the music of every heart. Our glory lies in understanding, listening and honoring that music.

My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil's mind, and behold, all things are changed!

Humor brings insight and tolerance. Irony brings a deeper and less friendly understanding.

All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not to admit of any hypothesis whatever, much less of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.

It is the storytellers task to elicit sympathy and a measure of understanding for those who lie outside the boundaries of State approval.

The two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely in the acquisition of knowledge.

I was sort of a half-breed of colonization, understanding everyone because I belonged completely to no one.

Our dignity is not in what we do, but what we understand.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.

Definitions are temporary verbalizations of concepts, and concepts- particularly difficult concepts- are usually revised repeatedly as our knowledge and understanding grows.

Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast over nature.

Proper preparation is the key to our success. Our acts can be no wiser than our thoughts. Our thinking can be no wiser than our understanding.

For what is a poem but a hazardous attempt at self-understanding: it is the deepest part of autobiography.

We cannot let another person into our hearts or minds unless we empty ourselves. We can truly listen to him or truly hear her only out of emptiness.

What we call 'evil' doesn't necessarily deserve any kind of respect or understanding, by any means; it just deserves an acknowledgement of its complexity so we can better understand it - so we can help prevent it.

Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end.

We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void.

The most important knowledge is understanding what you can't do.

The motto should not be: Forgive one another; rather understand one another.

And if I remain in the dark about our purpose here, and the meaning of eternity, I have nevertheless arrived at an understanding of a few more modest truths: Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why— which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive.

Do today's duty, fight today's temptation; do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.

Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding.

Do you know, my son, with what little understanding the world is ruled?

Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.

I think there's more support today. I think there's better understanding today. And there's a better appreciation for the fact that if any community is going to prosper, if any community is going to be seen at its best, that the women in that community have to be viewed as equally as important as the men. And [women] have to be able to live outside of boundaries that are placed on them because of their gender. As well as their race or their religion.

When you fully understand the situation, it is worse than you think.

Understanding the often unconscious nature of genetic control is the first step toward understanding that"”in many realms, not just sex"”we're all puppets, and our best hope for even partial liberation is to try to decipher the logic of the puppeteer.

Find a priest who understands English and doesn't look like Rasputin.

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.

It always takes awfully long time to understand unbelievably simple things.

The three indispensable of genius are: understanding, feeling, and perseverance; the three things that enrich genius are: contentment of mind, the cherishing of good thoughts, and the exercise of memory

A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with.

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

We are involved in a life that passes understanding and our highest business is our daily life.

At the moment you are most in awe of all there is about life that you don't understand, you are closer to understanding it all than at any other time.

No man can understand why a woman shouldn't prefer a good reputation to a good time.

What's so funny about peace, love and understanding

My father was extremely loving to me and funny and wise and understanding, and at other times extremely demanding, critical, calculating, exacting. When you're a young woman, I think you want to please a lot, so maybe you accept more of the criticism than you would as an older person. But criticism can be very wounding. It certainly was to me.

The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.

Most men make little use of their speech than to give evidence against their own understanding.

Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never.

Democracy, like any non-coercive relationship, rests on a shared understanding of limits.

It is my intent to beget a good understanding between the chymists and the mechanical philosophers who have hitherto been too little acquainted with one another's learning.

The sense impressions of one-celled animals are not edited for the brain. This is philosophically interesting in a rather mournful way, since it means that only the simplest animals perceive the universe as it is.

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.

To like Keats is a test of fitness for understanding poetry, just as to like Shakespeare is a test of general mental capacity.

An understanding of Jesus is not a mere matter of intelligence. He has to be accepted by faith.

One of the problems with the kill-or-capture metric is that it has often been to the exclusion of having a deeper, richer understanding of the movement, its origins, and our adversaries' mindset. The nuances are absolutely critical. Our adversaries are wedded to the ideology that informs and fuels their struggle, and, by not paying attention, we risk not knowing our enemy.

A prince who will not undergo the difficulty of understanding must undergo the danger of trusting.

Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.

Sorrow is so woven through us, so much a part of our souls, or at least any understanding of our souls that we are able to attain, that every experience is dyed with its color. This is why, even in moment of joy, part of that joy is the seams of ore that are our sorrow. They burn darkly and beautifully in the midst of joy, and they make joy the complete experience that it is. But they still burn.

The friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.

I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding in this great adventure in the world of Aids than I ever did in the cut-throat, competitive world in which I spent my life.

Again a different meaning has to be understood.

If you wish to understand a philosopher, do not ask what he says, but find out what he wants

The same passions in man and woman nonetheless differ in tempo; hence man and woman do not cease misunderstanding one another.

The improvement of the mind improves the heart and corrects the understanding.

To understand the world one must not be worrying about one's self.

I believe talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it. Electricity will do all that. It makes no

I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me 'understand' something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

Understanding, and action proceeding from understanding and guided by it, is one weapon against the world's bombardment, the one medicine, the one instrument by which liberty, health, and joy may be shaped . . . in the individual, and in the race.

Love has reasons which reason cannot understand.

To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed That can make life a garden.

It is well go give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.

The qualities of a great man are vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character.

You can't give people pride, but you can provide the kind of understanding that makes people look to their inner strengths and find their own sense of pride

There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it

Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart

Man knows much more than he understands.

It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand, and what those things are. Human understanding has vulgarly occupied itself with nothing but understanding, but if it would only take the trouble to understand itself at the same time it would simply have to posit the paradox.

It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences.

True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.

Till a man can judge whether they be truths or not, his understanding is but little improved, and thus men of much reading, though greatly learned, but may be little knowing.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Men do not understand books until they have a certain amount of life, or at any rate no man understands a deep book, until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.

Anyone who invokes authors in discussion is not using his intelligence but his memory.

People who comprehend a thing to its very depths rarely stay faithful to it forever. For they have brought its depths into the light of day: and in the depths there is always much that is unpleasant to see.

What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives acts and experiences otherwise than we do?

The fact that you are willing to say, 'I do not understand, and it is fine,' is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.

An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.

Teaching is the highest form of understanding.

The first thing that goes into shooting a scene is understanding whats on the page.

In terms of fast food and deep understanding of the culture of fast food, I'm your man.

The growth of understanding follows an ascending spiral rather than a straight line

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck, people understood each other, they would never agree.

There is a progression of understanding vis-a-vis pro football that varies drastically with the factor of distance — physical, emotional, intellectual and every other way. Which is exactly the way it should be, in the eyes of the amazingly small number of people who own and control the game, because it is this finely managed distance factor that accounts for the high-profit mystique that blew the sacred institution of baseball off its ''national pastime'' pedestal in less than fifteen years.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

Atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of understanding.

The secret of forgiving everything is to understand nothing.