“Understanding is not such that we either enjoy it or lack it altogether. To be human and to be aware is to encounter only what is in some manner understood. Thus, it may be said that understanding is an unsought condition; we inexorably inhabit a world of intelligibles.”
I. On the Theoretical Understanding of Human Conduct
On Human Conduct (1975)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Michael Oakeshott 12
British philosopher 1901–1990Related quotes

As quoted in Our Precarious Habitat (1973) by Melvin A. Benarde, p. v
Max Velmans (Ed.) (1996). The Science of Consciousness: Psychological, Neuropsychological and Clinical Reviews. Routledge. p. 3

The essence of everything., Dortmund Germany October 1, 1978, published by the DLM in The Golden Age No 51, February 1979
1970s

Soros on Soros (1995)
Context: On the abstract level, I have turned the belief in my own fallibility into the cornerstone of an elaborate philosophy. On a personal level, I am a very critical person who looks for defects in myself as well as in others. But, being so critical, I am also quite forgiving. I couldn't recognize my mistakes if I couldn't forgive myself. To others, being wrong is a source of shame; to me, recognizing my mistakes is a source of pride. Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.

"The Cultural Apparatus"
Power, Politics, and People (1963)

“You will thus understand that what you fear is either insignificant or short-lived.”
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XXIV: On despising death

Jede Äußerung menschlichen Geisteslebens kann als eine Art der Sprache aufgefaßt werden, und diese Auffassung erschließt nach Art einer wahrhaften Methode überall neue Fragestellungen.
"On Language as Such and on the Language of Man" (1916), translated by E. Jephcott, in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Vol. 1 (1996), p. 62