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Understanding quotes

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“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand.” Bertrand Russell, “A History of Western Philosophy” - 1945

“You have to know the past to understand the present.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point.” Albert Camus, “The Plague” - 1947

“All our knowledge begins with sense, proceeds thence to understanding, and ends with reason, beyond which nothing higher can be discovered in the human mind for elaborating the matter of intuition and subjecting it to the highest unity of thought.” Immanuel Kant, “Critique of Pure Reason” - 1791

“You women have a way of understanding without thinking. Woman was created out of God's own fancy. Man, He had to hammer into shape.” Rabindranath Tagore, “The Home and the World” - 1916

“If anything, I wanted to understand things and then be free of them.” Bob Dylan, “Chronicles, Volume One” - 2004

“What you don’t understand you can make mean anything.” Chuck Palahniuk, “Diary” - 2003

“Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone.” Leo Tolstoy, “War and Peace” - 1869

“How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm...” Lewis Carroll, “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” - 1865

“No one understands so well as a woman, how to say things that are, at once, both sweet and deep.” Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” - 1862

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” - 16 April 1963

“To understand that of any person, his whole life, from birth, must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient.” Malcolm X, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” - 1965

“Why, stand-under and under-stand is all one.” William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” - 1623

“It's so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.” George Bernard Shaw, “Man and Superman” - 1903

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“It is only when a man feels himself face to face with such horrors that he can understand their true import.” Bram Stoker, “Dracula” - 1897

“Silence is the snare of the demon, and the more one keeps silent, the more terrifying the demon becomes; but silence is also the mutual understanding between the Deity and the individual.” Søren Kierkegaard, “Fear and Trembling” - 1843

“The motto should not be: Forgive one another; rather, Understand one another.” Emma Goldman, “Anarchism and Other Essays” - 1910

“Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity: And whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a...” David Hume, “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding” - 1748

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already,...” Leo Tolstoy, “The Kingdom of God Is Within You” - 1894

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” Francis Bacon, “The Essays of Francis Bacon” - 1597

“Answering to this, all religions promise a reward beyond life, in eternity, for excellences of the will or heart, but none for excellences of the head or understanding.” Arthur Schopenhauer, “The World as Will and Representation” - 1819

“We only labour to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void.” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the...” Stephen Hawking, “A Brief History of Time” - 1988

“Philosophy cannot and should not give faith, but it should understand itself and know what it has to offer and take nothing away, and least of all should fool people out of something as if it were nothing.” Søren Kierkegaard, “Fear and Trembling” - 1843

“I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things.” Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist” - 1988

“You should write a book . . . translating mad things girls do so boys can understand them.” J. K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” - 2003

“He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either be not minded or not understood.” John Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” - 1689

“So soon as I talk I express the universal, and if I do not do so, no one can understand me.” Søren Kierkegaard, “Fear and Trembling” - 1843

“And it was for him, for this creature, for this man, who understood nothing, who felt nothing!” Gustave Flaubert, “Madame Bovary” - 1856

“I understand a fury in your words, but not the words.” William Shakespeare, “Othello” - 1623

“I know the Lord has a plan for us all, but sometimes, I just don’t understand what the message can be.” Nicholas Sparks, “A Walk to Remember” - 1999

“Relationship is understanding.” Bruce Lee, “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” - 1975

“Love, what is love? I don't think you can really put it into words. Love is understanding someone, caring for him, sharing his joys and sorrows.” Anne Frank, “The Diary of a Young Girl” - 1947

“The trouble was that he was talking in philosophy, but they were listening in gibberish.” Terry Pratchett, “Small Gods” - 1992

“You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself.” John Steinbeck, “East of Eden” - 1952

“I have not the pleasure of understanding you” Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” - 28 January 1813

“We could not understand because we were too far and could not remember because we were travelling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign—and no memories.” Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness” - 1899

“While we loved each other we didn't need words to make ourselves understood.” Albert Camus, “The Plague” - 1947

“You might be able to put it all into one paragraph or into one verse of a song if you could get it right.” Bob Dylan, “Chronicles, Volume One” - 2004

“They're talking about things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway.” Franz Kafka, “The Trial” - 1925

“Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.” Paulo Coelho, “The Zahir” - 2005

“I am afraid our eyes are bigger than our bellies, and that we have more curiosity than capacity; for we grasp at all, but catch nothing but wind.” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“My teachings are easy to understand and easy to put into practice. Yet your intellect will never grasp them, and if you try to practice them, you'll fail. My teachings are older than the world. How can you grasp their meaning? If you want to know...” Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” - 4th century BC

“My thoughts are stars I can’t fathom into constellations.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first.” Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations” - c. 170 - 180

“He values my understanding and talents more highly than my heart, but I am proud of the latter only.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” - 1774

“What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately.” John Steinbeck, “The Winter of Our Discontent” - 1961

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view” Harper Lee, “To Kill a Mockingbird” - 1960

“Nobody listens any more. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me. I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense. And I want you...” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953

Related topics

love knowledge life reason God words meaning feeling empathy heart teaching women wisdom ignorance language philosophy belief man woman experience

Related authors

William Shakespeare (6)
Paulo Coelho (4)
Leo Tolstoy (4)
John Steinbeck (4)
J. K. Rowling (3)
Joseph Conrad (3)
Søren Kierkegaard (3)
Bruce Lee (3)
Jane Austen (2)
Lewis Carroll (2)
David Hume (2)
Ayn Rand (2)
Carl Sagan (2)
Michel de Montaigne (2)
Albert Camus (2)
Galileo Galilei (2)
Bob Dylan (2)
Oscar Wilde (1)
George Bernard Shaw (1)
Ernest Hemingway (1)

Related sources

Fear and Trembling (3)
Tao of Jeet Kune Do (3)
Pride and Prejudice (2)
Antony and Cleopatra (2)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2)
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (2)
The Fountainhead (2)
The Alchemist (2)
Heart of Darkness (2)
Anna Karenina (2)
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (2)
The Plague (2)
East of Eden (2)
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (2)
Chronicles, Volume One (2)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1)
Othello (1)
The Tempest (1)
Man and Superman (1)