“It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.”
Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American journalist
A Preface to Morals (1929)
Quotes about understanding page 16
Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
Interview published with the Biograph album set (1985)
Carl Sagan book The Demon-Haunted World
Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
“You can't understand where someone's going unless you understand where they've been.”
Jerry B. Jenkins (1949) novelist, biographer
“Magic's just science that we don't understand yet.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host
Washington Irving (1783–1859) writer, historian and diplomat from the United States
Source: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
Robert Walton in "Letter 2"
Source: Frankenstein (1818)
Marisha Pessl Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Source: Special Topics in Calamity Physics
“Do you understand the sadness of geography?”
Michael Ondaatje book The English Patient
Source: The English Patient
“Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.”
J. Michael Straczynski (1954) American writer and television producer
“I want you to understand me.
This isn’t vengeance.
This is punishment.”
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Breaks
“anyone can understand anything. You just have to know how to present your information.”
Jodi Picoult book Songs of the Humpback Whale
Source: Songs of the Humpback Whale
“If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee.”
Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman
Chuck Klosterman book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
Source: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist
Source: Quotes of Salvador Dali, 1961 - 1970, Diary of a Genius (1964), p. 26
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist
Source: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Variant: People understand me so little that they do not even understand when I complain of being misunderstood.
Source: The Journals of Kierkegaard
“Just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist.”
Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
“In general, I feel if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.”
John Rogers Searle (1932) American philosopher
“Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem.”
Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Binds
Isaac Asimov book Foundation’s Edge
Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 11 “Sayshell” section 3, p. 205
Source: Foundation's Edge
Context: Pelorat sighed. “I will never understand people.”
“There’s nothing to it. All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else. We’re in no way different ourselves... You show me someone who can’t understand people and I’ll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself.”
“If I understand Change, I shall make no great mistake in Life”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor
Source: Becoming a Person of Influence: How to Positively Impact the Lives of Others
“Your talk," I said, "is surely the handiwork of wisdom because not one word of it do I understand.”
Flann O'Brien book The Third Policeman
Source: The Third Policeman (1967)
Source: V for Vendetta
“Learning is not the accumulation of knowledge, but rather, one thing only: understanding”
Donna Jo Napoli (1948) American children's writer and linguist
Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People
Part 1 : Fundamental Techniques in Handling People, p. 36.
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936)
Context: Benjamin Franklin, tactless in his youth, became so diplomatic, so adroit at handling people that he was made American Ambassador to France. The secret of his success? "I will speak ill of no man," he said, "... and speak all the good I know of everybody." Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving. "A great man shows his greatness," says Carlyle, "by the way he treats little men."
Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variant: Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
David Sedaris book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Source: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
“Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life.”
James Clavell book Shōgun
Source: Shōgun (1975), Ch. 56
“It may be a species of impudence to think that the way you understand God is the way God is. (60).”
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer
Source: Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)
“I don't understand what's going on, but i'll just pretend that I do.”
Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist
Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon
Source: Flowers for Algernon
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher
Letter 74 (76) to Albert Burgh (1675) http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1711&chapter=144250&layout=html&Itemid=27 <br class="br">Context: You seem to wish to employ reason, and ask me, "How I know that my philosophy is the best among all that have ever been taught in the world, or are being taught, or ever will be taught?" a question which I might with much greater right ask you; for I do not presume that I have found the best philosophy, I know that I understand the true philosophy. If you ask in what way I know it, I answer: In the same way as you know that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles: that this is sufficient, will be denied by no one whose brain is sound, and who does not go dreaming of evil spirits inspiring us with false ideas like the true. For the truth is the index of itself and of what is false.<br>But you, who presume that you have at last found the best religion, or rather the best men, on whom you have pinned your credulity, you, "who know that they are the best among all who have taught, do now teach, or shall in future teach other religions. Have you examined all religions, ancient as well as modern, taught here and in India and everywhere throughout the world? And, if you, have duly examined them, how do you know that you have chosen the best" since you can give no reason for the faith that is in you? But you will say, that you acquiesce in the inward testimony of the Spirit of God, while the rest of mankind are ensnared and deceived by the prince of evil spirits. But all those outside the pale of the Romish Church can with equal right proclaim of their own creed what you proclaim of yours.<br>As to what you add of the common consent of myriads of men and the uninterrupted ecclesiastical succession, this is the very catch-word of the Pharisees. They with no less confidence than the devotees of Rome bring forward their myriad witnesses, who as pertinaciously as the Roman witnesses repeat what they have heard, as though it were their personal experience. Further, they carry back their line to Adam. They boast with equal arrogance, that their Church has continued to this day unmoved and unimpaired in spite of the hatred of Christians and heathen. They more than any other sect are supported by antiquity. They exclaim with one voice, that they have received their traditions from God himself, and that they alone preserve the word of God, both written and unwritten. That all heresies have issued from them, and that they have remained constant through thousands of years under no constraint of temporal dominion, but by the sole efficacy of their superstition, no one can deny. The miracles they tell of would tire a thousand tongues. But their chief boast is that they count a far greater number of martyrs than any other nation, a number which is daily increased by those who suffer with singular constancy for the faith they profess; nor is their boasting false. I myself knew among others of a certain Judah called the faithful, who in the midst of the flames, when he was already thought to be dead, lifted his voice to sing the hymn beginning, "To thee, o God, I offer up my soul", and so singing perished.
Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road
Source: On the Jellicoe Road
“Home is not where you live but where they understand you.”
Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914) German author
