Quotes about understanding (7444 quotes, page 74)

“Prediction is not the same thing as understanding, but in the absence of prediction, we can certainly doubt understanding.”

Robyn Dawes (1936–2010) American psychologist

Source: Everyday Irrationality: How Pseudo-Scientists, Lunatics, and the Rest of Us Systematically Fail to Think Rationally (2001), Chapter 6, “Three Specific Irrationalities of Probabilistic Judgment” (p. 97)

“This fear of the power of the totalitarian state is something normal people cannot understand.”

Rebel Pepper (1973) Chinese political cartoonist

"Rebel with a cause: An interview with China’s most famous political cartoonist" in SAGE Journals https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0306422016657031a (29 June 2016)

People , Fear

“Place is important to my writing; I believe that if a reader gets a clear picture of the place where a character is from, then they can understand what motivates the character, what limits him or her…”

Jesmyn Ward (1977) American writer

Source: On using the setting to frame her novels in “Jesmyn Ward: ‘So much of life is pain and sorrow and wilful ignorance’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/12/jesmyn-ward-sing-unburied-sing-interview-meet-author in The Guardian (2017 Nov 12)

Motivation

“Various classes of doctors and healers somewhat to look down upon each other and ignore respective merit. This habit must be superseded, of course, by co-operation, correlation and the growing understanding of the part that various types of healing play in their relation to one another...”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter XXXV The Opportunity Today

Parting

“My parents are very supportive of me, I’m their only child, of course, so I always have to call them before I leave and when I arrive somewhere. Sometimes I still don’t think they really understand what I’m doing! I think they’re just happy that I’m happy and I love my job.”

Liu Wen (model) (1988) Chinese model

Source: "Liu Wen Talks Style, Diversity And What It Means To Be China’s First Supermodel" in Marie Claire https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/fashion-news/liu-wen-interview-china-s-first-supermodel-talks-style-diversity-and-her-mango-campaign-15375 (3 March 2016)

Happiness , Love , Support , Thinking

“As you grow up, you understand more about what beauty is. It’s not just about the outside. Your look changes depending on your confidence, and then your beauty changes.”

Liu Wen (model) (1988) Chinese model

Source: "China’s First Supermodel on Changing Standards of Beauty" in The Cut https://www.thecut.com/2016/02/liu-wen-asian-beauty.html (1 March 2016)

Confidence , Dependency , Beauty , Change

“No extended definition of good is necessary to those who follow Jesus; even converted savages understand good and do it.”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Mysteries Of John (1946)

“Above all practice the presence of God in prayer. Divine Mind has given us all potentialities, in prayer we recognize it as the source of these, and with a right understanding of our relation to it our soul grows great with infinite capacity, all potentiality. "With God all things are possible."”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

"All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine."
Source: Teach Us to Pray with Cora Fillmore (1941)

Soul , God

“There's just one person who's allowed to ask, or answer, rhetorical questions in my courtroom -- and that's me! Understand? No, don't answer! There you go again.”

Judith Sheindlin (1942) American lawyer, judge, television personality, and author

Source: Quotes From Judge Judy Cases, Dress, Stand, and/or Speak Properly

Question , Personality

“What will that world be like? What are the steps by which its achievement can be approached? If we realize what the various needed changes and developments are, we will better understand where we can fit in, and to which necessary efforts we feel most drawn.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter XXXI Understanding the World Plan

World , Change , Feeling , Effort

“Self-knowledge starts with understanding that you’ve got the single most important thing absolutely right – you are alive.”

Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader

Source: Prem Rawat's book, Hear Yourself: How to Find Peace in the Noisy World, published in 2021

Knowledge

“... you know, it's like you think the second world war is over ... [the] second world war is not over ... d'you understand what i'm telling you ... th'second world war is not over.”

Charles Manson (1934–2017) American criminal and musician

Source: Diane Sawyer interview (ABC, 1993)

Thinking , World , War

“If a person would understand either the Odyssey or any other ancient work, he must never look at the dead without seeing the living in them, nor at the living without thinking of the dead. We are too fond of seeing the ancients as one thing and the moderns as another.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Ancient Work
Source: The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XII - The Enfant Terrible of Literature

Dead , Personality , Thinking

“To make tomorrow better we must realize tough realities today, to understand the necessity for renunciation.”

Wojciech Jaruzelski (1923–2014) Polish military officer and politician

Excerpts of Martial law speech (14 December 1981)

Reality

“I would love to write more children’s books. I think children can understand complex things so long as you explain them in words they can wrap themselves around.”

Padma Lakshmi (1970) Indian-born American author, actress, model, television host and executive producer

Source: "What I’ve Learned: Padma Lakshmi" in Esquire https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a37862708/padma-lakshmi-what-ive-learned-interview-2021/ (2 November 2021)

Children , Books , Thinking , Love

“The notion of a prison industrial complex insists on understandings of the punishment process that take into account economic and political structures and ideologies, rather than focusing myopically on the individual criminal conduct and efforts to "curb crime."”

Angela Davis Are Prisons Obsolete?

Source: Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), Chapter Five

Effort

“The law has always had difficulty assimilating the implications, if not the very idea, of scientific evidence. Even the most intelligent lawyers, judges, and juries have customarily found it difficult to understand at first.”

James D. Watson (1928) American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist.

Source: DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution (2003/2017), Chapter 11, “Genetic Fingerprinting: DNA’s Day in Court” (p. 300)

Law , Intelligence , Idea

“The people of Earth did not understand that humans were part of a worldwide organism, that something as tiny as a cluster of bacteria could mean the difference between life and death for every living thing, the difference between a functioning, flourishing planet and a desolation.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: The Margarets (2007), Chapter 32, “I Am Gretamara/On Mars” (p. 272)

People , Life , Death , Parting

“What is my ruling faculty now to me? and of what nature am I now making it? and for what purpose am I now using it? is it void of understanding? is it loosed and rent asunder from social life? is it melted and mixed with the poor flesh so as to move together with it?”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book X, 24

Nature , Life

“The things... which are proper to the understanding no other man is used to impede, for neither fire, nor iron, nor tyrant, nor abuse, touches it in any way. When it has been made a sphere, it continues a sphere.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book VIII, 41

Way

“Animals and plants cannot understand our business, so we have denied that they can understand their own. What we call inorganic matter cannot understand the animals' and plants' business, we have therefore denied that it can understand anything whatever.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Organic and Inorganic
Source: The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VI - Mind and Matter

Business , Animals

“I speak in general. I think that Putin does not understand that criticizing power can help this power. How do we fight corruption in the United States? There are two forces - independent media and powerful opposition party.”

Michael McFaul (1963) American academic and diplomat

"Izvestia Interview with Michael McFaul" in Carnegie Endowment for World Peace https://carnegieendowment.org/2002/05/15/izvestia-interview-with-michael-mcfaul-pub-984 (15 May 2002)

Help , Thinking , Fight

“We need to get to a situation where we understand what we stand for and how much power we have, we are not fully conscious of how we form people’s mindset and how we change people’s mind.”

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde (1978) Nigerian actress and singer

https://naijagists.com/omotola-jalade-ekeinde-wisdom-quotes-top-20-motivational-quotes-sayings-omosexy/ Omotola Jalade Ekehinde speaking on Mindset.

People , Change

“I used to think I was odd, as the things that interested many weren’t my interest. Not anymore, now I understand my interests and live in my truth.”

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde (1978) Nigerian actress and singer

https://naijagists.com/omotola-jalade-ekeinde-wisdom-quotes-top-20-motivational-quotes-sayings-omosexy/ Omotola Jalade Ekehinde speaking on Success.

Truth , Thinking

“You can't do everything at the same time, don't be too much in a hurry. Space out yourself, rest, understand yourself and love yourself.”

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde (1978) Nigerian actress and singer

Time , Love

“Be yourself, you might not understand it, others might not understand it, but someday, your purpose will be enough.”

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde (1978) Nigerian actress and singer

“Such speculation leads us nowhere and everywhere, but it makes no difference to our understanding of our immediate problems.”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Source: Book 1, Chapter 1 “What the Sea God Discarded” (p. 165), Corum, The Queen of the Swords (1971)

Problem

“Always take care of yourself, of your spirit, be true to yourself, build a very thick skin where you understand that your value is outside of people’s opinions about you, and you’ll be okay.”

Simisola Kosoko (1988) Nigerian singer and songwriter

Source: https://notjustok.com/article/interviews/simi-in-conversation-with-notjustok-for-womens-history-month/ Simi on an interview during Women History Month

People

“Citizens who understand the power they have to elect and hold those in public office accountable can truly move mountains!”

Yemi Adamolekun Executive Director of Enough is Enough

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/10/nigeria-61-eie-11-light-hope-power-and-voice-opinion/ Speaking about Nigeria (October 18 2021 )

Mountain

“We consider ourselves an ally and friend (of the United States), although some officials in this government don't understand this in its true dimension.”

Alejandro Giammattei (1956) President of Guatemala

Source: Alejandro Giammattei (2021) cited in: " Guatemala backs Taipei: president https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2021/12/08/2003769213" in Taipei Times, 8 December 2021.

“The beauty of worldly allurements makes it lovers so much oblivious that they forget the passage of temporal as well as celestial worlds. They fail to understand the challenge before them.”

Bu Ali Shah Qalandar (1209–1324) Indian Sufi saint

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 270

Forgetting , Beauty , Lovers , World

“Fear of suffering is a great obstacle to being a happy person in life. God wants us to be happy. Asceticism is not supposed to make us sad. It’s supposed to free us to be able to understand and do what God wants. He wants our happiness. He wants us to bring happiness to others.”

Alfred Clifton Hughes (1932) Roman Catholic archbishop

Source: 60 Years A Priest: An Interview with Archbishop Alfred Hughes https://nds.edu/blog-entry/60-years-a-priest-an-interview-with-archbishop-alfred-hughes/

God , Personality , Happiness , Suffering

“Security wants to know you're a player. Otherwise, you'd steal. Boomzilla understands that.”

William Gibson Bridge trilogy

Source: Bridge trilogy, All Tomorrow's Parties‎ (1999), Chapter 37, "A Little Shit Money"

“Understand the person you had by your side by looking at their next choice.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Comprendi la persona che hai avuto al tuo fianco osservando la sua prossima scelta.
Source: prevale.net

Personality

“It cannot be said that we didn't show good will, moderation, patience, sometimes there probably was too much of it ... the initiative of the great national understanding was backed by millions of Poles.”

Wojciech Jaruzelski (1923–2014) Polish military officer and politician

Source: Excerpts of Martial law speech (14 December 1981)

Patience

“For Heraclitus, the logos is something that we need to learn to notice if we are to understand the true significance of the world. It manifests itself all around us but, Heraclitus suggests, only a few intelligent people ever realize what is going on.”

Catherine Rowett (1956) Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (born 1956)

Source: Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 5 : Heraclitus

Intelligence , People , Learning , World

“Xenophanes might be saying that we have only superficial understanding, and we never get to knowledge of the clear truth.”

Catherine Rowett (1956) Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (born 1956)

Source: Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 4 : Reality and appearance: more adventures in metaphysics

Truth , Knowledge

“If we are to understand what is going on in Empedocles’s writings, we need to think about the philosophical motives that drive him, and we need to make use of the bits of text we already had before the papyrus turned up.”

Catherine Rowett (1956) Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (born 1956)

Source: Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 1 : Lost words, forgotten worlds

Motivation , Thinking

“I do think they [the EU] understand there's an opportunity to do a deal. I think it's going to be touch and go.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

2010s, 2019
Source: Brexit: Johnson accused of ‘gaslighting’ voters amid claims he offered nothing new in EU meeting https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-deal-boris-johnson-donald-tusk-meeting-g7-summit-a9078646.html (26 August 2019)

Thinking

“We should actively campaign for a public understanding of the benefits of the [UK] union, economic and strategic, for the people and its component nations,”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

Source: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt pledge to safeguard union https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-48817848 BBC News (30 June 2019)

People

“We tend to think of aid as our main mechanism by which we assist people, and of course, it is essential and important. But, without a security overlay and without a deeper understanding of the trauma that is there, we perhaps won't fulfill the fullness of the potentiality of our generosity.”

Jeff Fortenberry (1960) U.S. Representative from Nebraska

Source: Congressman: Security, solidarity, and subsidiarity needed to rebuild Iraqi villages https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/39181/congressman-security-solidarity-and-subsidiarity-needed-to-rebuild-iraqi-villages (17 August 2018)

People , Thinking

“The modern historian of India must approach her as a living entity with a central continuous urge, of which the apparent life is a mere expression. Without such an outlook, it is impossible to understand India, which…stands today strong…determined not to be untrue to its ancient self.”

Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi (1887–1971) Indian independence movement activist, politician, writer and educationist (1887-1971)

Source: quoted in https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/revisiting-km-munshis-majestic-vision-for-writing-indias-history https://www.esamskriti.com/e/National-Affairs/For-The-Followers-Of-Dharma/History-Writing-And-Nationalism-1.aspx http://www.eng.vedanta.ru/library/prabuddha_bharata/August2005_editorial.php

Strong , Life

“As we ring in the New Year, we hope that it will bring new opportunities for us. Of course, we hope luck will be on our side, but we understand that making our dreams reality primarily depends on us, on what we prioritise in our daily lives, on our ability to commit to our projects and achieve concrete, tangible results.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

2021

Dependency , Dreams , Hope , Reality

“Banish Evil from the world? Nonsense! Encourage it, foster it, sponsor it. The world owes Evil a debt beyond imagination. Think! Without greed ambition falters. Without vanity art becomes idle musing. Without cruelty benevolence lapses to passivity. Superstition has shamed man into self-reliance and, without stupidity, where would be the savor of superior understanding?”

Jack Vance book The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph

The Sub-Standard Sardines (p. 132)
Short fiction, The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph (1966)

Imagination , Stupidity , World , Evil

“What I can't understand is why you can't see the extraordinary beauty of the idea that life started from nothing – that is such a staggering, elegant, beautiful thing, why would you want to clutter it up with something so messy as a God?””

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

During his conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, as quoted in The Telegraph, in . In " Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9102740/Richard-Dawkins-I-cant-be-sure-God-does-not-exist.html"

God , Beauty , Idea , Life

“An enemy that engages Israeli forces along our border and learns it unhindered will eventually find a way to circumvent it. Understanding that the line of engagement will eventually be breached has taught the”

Brig. Gen. Eran Ortal (1971)

Learning , Way

“This is... a book about morality. By offering several perspectives... some rooted in philosophy, some... in science and technology, we may come to see new ways to understand...”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes (1990), Approaching Abortion Anew

Books , Way , Science

“The only string theories we really understand well have exact supersymmetry.”

Michael Dine (1953) American physicist

Source: [Loose Ends: String Theory and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory, World Science Festival, 2 August 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSWd21z2qqE] (quote at 40:20 of 1:27:24)

“We can now understand fully how wrong it would be to look at transference in a totally derogatory way when it fulfills such vital drives toward human wholeness. Man needs to infuse his life with value so that he can pronounce it “good.””

Ernest Becker book The Denial of Death

The transference-object is then a natural fetishization for man’s highest yearnings and strivings. Again we see what a marvelous “talent” transference is. It is a form of creative fetishism, the establishment of a locus from which our lives can draw the powers they need and want. What is more wanted than immortality-power? How wonderful and how facile to be able to take our whole immortality-striving and make it part of a dialogue with a single human being. We don’t know, on this planet, what the universe wants from us or is prepared to give us. We don’t have an answer to the question that troubled Kant of what our duty is, what we should be doing on earth. We live in utter darkness about who we are and why we are here, yet we know it must have some meaning. What is more natural, then, than to take this unspeakable mystery and dispel it straightaway by addressing our performance of heroics to another human being, knowing thus daily whether this performance is good enough to earn us eternity. If it is bad, we know that it is bad by his reactions and so are able instantly to change it.
Source: The Denial of Death (1973), The Spell Cast by Persons—The Nexus of Unfreedom

Way , Life

“I would like everyone to understand that the Church in this society is not a foreign element but a profoundly domestic reality that truly wants the good for each person. We hope to find agreement and a suitable response from the other side.”

Josip Mrzljak (1944) Croatian Roman Catholic bishop

Source: Josip Mrzljak Appointed as the New Bishop of Varaždin https://ika.hkm.hr/english/josip-mrzljak-appointed-as-the-new-bishop-of-varazdin/ (2007)

Personality , Hope , Reality

“Survival comes first, truth, understanding, and science later.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb book Skin in the Game

Source: Skin in the Game (2018), p. 214

Truth , Science

“You must understand the whole of life,
not just one little part of it.
that is why you must read,
that is why you must look at the skies,
that is why you must sing and dance,
and write poems and suffer and understand,
for all that is life.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

Suffering , Singing , Reading , Dance

“If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

Problem

“Exploring the infinitely small particles to better protect our planet and understand its major challenges is essential, so that our decisions live up to the hopes of future generations.”

Stéphane Valeri (1962) Monaco politician

Source: Stéphane Valeri (2021) cited in: " High Level Visit to IAEA Monaco Laboratories Highlights Nuclear Techniques to Protect People, the Ocean https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/high-level-visit-to-iaea-monaco-laboratories-highlights-nuclear-techniques-to-protect-people-the-ocean" in International Atomic Energy Agency, 4 March 2021.

Future , Hope , Decision

“We often think that yoga is only about the combination of postures, breathing, and meditation, but it results in a lot of internal work, too. That work has led me to understand my own liberation — not just of my physical body, but of my emotional and spiritual bodies. A huge part of that has been recognizing that I am a sexual being, and that's not something that I need to apologize for or be ashamed of.”

Jessamyn Stanley (1987) American yoga teacher and author

Source: Jessamyn Stanley's Road To Sexual Liberation, Michelle Toglia, July 8, 2020, 2020 https://www.bustle.com/wellness/jessamyn-stanley-sexual-liberation,

Thinking , Parting

“We have little understanding, but we should never be afraid of anything.”

Nikita Vasilyevich Smirnov (28)

Source: https://books.google.ru/books/about/%D0%A7%D1%82%D0%BE_%D1%82%D0%BE_%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B5.html?id=b-0TEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

“Usually... a person’s breathing has become automatic from childhood upwards, being determined by his childhood’s environment, circumstances and heredity. This automatic breathing is usually very inferior because of our ‘modern’ way of life, and leads to permanent inferior health. Therefore one of the first things which must be taken in hand is an understanding and mastery of the science of breathing.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter XV The Essential Science of Breathing

Childhood , Personality , Health , Science

“The motivations and methodologies might differ, but both science and religion posit life as a special outcome of a vast and mostly inhospitable universe. There is a rich middle ground for dialogue between the practitioners of astrobiology and those who seek to understand the meaning of our existence in a biological universe.”

Chris Impey (1956) astronomer

Source: Vatican Observatory examines theological implications of finding alien life https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/17651/vatican-observatory-examines-theological-implications-of-finding-alien-life (10 November 2009)

Universe , Motivation , Science , Religion

“I know that you've enjoyed all the good things money's given to you
and that to have to live without them is not an easy thing to do.
You take great pride in your appearance, all of which is second-to-none,
and I can understand how you're feeling when you see yourself growing old,
the man you love is never there to hold.
But bear with me just a little bit longer.
Honey, won't you bear with me, and I guarantee you that our love will grow stronger.
Bear with me just a little bit longer. Honey, won't you bear with me?”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"Bear With Me" (song)
Song lyrics
Source: Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Bear With Me" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPYHOMeT_h0 (song on YouTube)

Money , Appearance , Love , Feeling

“I’ve taught public school for 26 years but I just can’t do it anymore. For years I asked the local school board and superintendent to let me teach a curriculum that doesn’t hurt kids, but they had other fish to fry. So I’m going to quit, I think. I’ve come slowly to understand what it is I really teach: A curriculum of confusion, class position, arbitrary justice, vulgarity, rudeness, disrespect for privacy, indifference to quality, and utter dependency. I teach how to fit into a world I don’t want to live in.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

Source: "I Quit, I Think" (1991)

Hurt , Dependency , Indifference , Thinking

“... I have no reason to doubt that the universe is the billions of years old that physicists say it is. Further, I find the idea of common descent (that all organisms share a common ancestor) fairly convincing, and have no reason to doubt it. ... I think that evolutionary biologists have contributed enormously to our understanding of the world. Although Darwin's mechanism - natural selection working on variation - might explain many things, however, I do not believe it explains molecular life.”

Michael J. Behe (1952) American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate

Source: Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (1996), page 5

Idea , Nature , Thinking , Life

“I don’t really have a lot of desires, or that’s what I think of myself. But if I were to pick one, I would want for people to live peacefully. I don’t understand why some people harass or hurt others, or why they do these things because they envy others — we fight and wound each other and it might be a natural phenomenon that arises among weak humans, but I still hurt thinking about social issues such as Asian hate.”

Gong Yoo (1979) South Korean actor

Source: "Gong Yoo talks life, death and 20 years in the business" in Korea JoongAng Daily https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2021/04/19/entertainment/movies/Gong-Yoo-actor-interview/20210419145803689.html (19 April 2021)

Hurt , Hate , People , Nature

“No one ever landed on English soil with more hatred in his heart for a race than I did for the English, and, on this platform, are present English friends who can bear witness to the fact, but the more I lived among them, saw how the machine is working, the English national life, mixed with them, found where the heart-beat of the nation was, the more I loved them. There is none among you here present, my brothers, who loves the English people more than I do. You have to see what is going on there, and you have to mix with them. As the philosophy, our national philosophy of the Vedanta, has summarised all misfortune, all misery from that one cause, ignorance, herein also we must understand that the difficulties that arise between us and the English people are mostly due to that ignorance; we do not know them, they do not know us.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Source: Spoken on his return to India from England, as recorded in From Colombo to Almora (1904), p. 221

Love , Life , People , Heart

“I do not intend to ask whether Christianity is “true” or “false,” or to establish, for example, the former hypothesis. Rather, what will be in question here is what Christianity considers as truth – what kind of truth it offers to people, what it endeavors to communicate to them, not as a theoretical and indifferent truth but as the essential truth that by some mysterious affinity is suitable for them, to the point that it alone is capable of assuring them salvation. We are trying to understand the form of truth that circumscribes the domain of Christianity, the milieu in which it spreads, the air that it breaths, one might say – because there are many sorts of truths, many ways of being true or false. And we are also perhaps trying to get away from the concept of truth that dominates modern thought and that, as much in and of itself as in its multiple implications, determines the world in which we live.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

Books on Religion and Christianity, I am the Truth. Toward a philosophy of Christianity (1996)
Source: Michel Henry, I am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 1

Communication , Falseness , Question , Indifference

“The rites of the church are expressions of our faith. As we all individually have differing histories and experiences, communities of Christians do as well. One will find subtle differences even between parishes. Jesus Christ founded one Catholic Church with fundamental truths and sacraments. He did not detail the way that should be experienced. History and geography have provided the alternate expressions. With a unified Catholic Church, our differences can be ways of understanding those truths and celebrating the sacraments while protecting their integrity.”

John Michael Kudrick (1947) Roman Catholic bishop

Source: Pope Francis & Married Catholic Priests: Q&A with Bishop John of Parma https://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/pope-francis-married-catholic-priests-qa-bishop-john-parma (3 December 2014)

History , Communication , Truth , Faith

“If you are not something of a philosopher,—and by philosophy I understand a serene temper, and the maintaining of an equable mind under the sharpest disappointments,—I do not advise you to cultivate, or at any rate to grow enamoured of, a garden.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: In Veronica's Garden (1895), p. 92.

Disappointment

“Suspended between fear of the past and fear of the future, I recorded the dream in my journal. Then, without any explanation, as if the connection between the two were obvious, I wrote, I don’t understand why I wasn’t allowed to get a decent education as a child.”

Tara Westover book Educated

Source: Educated (2018), Chapter 18, “Blood and Feathers” (p. 163)

Education , Fear , Past , Future

“The skill I was learning was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand.”

Tara Westover book Educated

Source: Educated (2018), Chapter 6, “Shield and Buckler” (p. 62)

Reading , Patience , Learning

“If I’m playing someone who’s smart, suddenly every character I’ve played is smart. If I’m playing a bad guy, every character is a bad guy. I suppose it’s that thing where people want to see a through-line to understand you. I mean, you know, I have played pretty ordinary people too.”

Benedict Cumberbatch (1976) English actor and film producer

"Benedict Cumberbatch interview" in TimeOut https://www.timeout.com/kuala-lumpur/film/benedict-cumberbatch-interview (21 November 2016)

People , Guy

“From the Christian point of view, we have an obligation to inform our people that God heals. But at the same time, He heals us through our understanding that we can protect ourselves from such illnesses.”

Philip Arnold Subira Anyolo (1956) Kenyan Roman Catholic archbishop

Bishops in Africa Call for Appropriate Measures as Cases of COVID-19 are Confirmed https://www.aciafrica.org/news/925/bishops-in-africa-call-for-appropriate-measures-as-cases-of-covid-19-are-confirmed (5 March 2020)

God , Time , People

“I now knew what it was, but just because you can name a thing does not mean you understand it.”

Jack Cady (1932–2004) American writer

Source: Kilroy Was Here (1996), p. 145

“Nobody understands a prostitute better than a politician.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

“There is nothing more exhilarating than understanding.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

“I think I’m going to continue, not so much to remind people or myself, but continue to play parts that allow me to express some meaning or some understanding of what it means to be a person.”

Nicolas Cage (1964) American actor

"Nicolas Cage Is Ready to Be Taken Seriously Again" in Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/07/nicolas-cage-pig-interview (15 July 2021)

Personality , People , Thinking , Parting

“Most people neither hear nor understand God speaking in their hearts: they listen to the urging of passion, which inhabits the soul and with its clamour drowns the still small voice of God.”

Sophrony (Sakharov) (1896–1993) Russian monk, theologian and writer

Source: Saint Silouan the Athonite (1991), p. 79

Soul , God , People , Heart

“The one thing that is more dangerous than true ignorance is the illusion of understanding.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 57, “Becoming Philosophical” (p. 226)

“Folly tends to predominate over wisdom because it is usually easier to understand and more convenient (or exciting) to believe; but a little reflection usually sifts one from the other.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 1, “Emotion” (p. 3)

Wisdom

“The idea that we’re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews, just understand … that’s called World War III, okay? Let’s get it straight here, guys. We will not fight the third world war in Ukraine.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, March 2022
Source: Why Biden and the White House keep talking about World War III (March 17, 2022) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/17/why-biden-white-house-keep-talking-about-world-war-iii/

War , World , Training , Idea

“It is inherent to the human condition to admire precisely what you do not understand.”

Daniel Salamanca (1863–1935) President of Bolivia (1863-1935)

“To understand what is coming at you, you need to understand what happened before you.”

Ray Dalio (1949) American businessman

" Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguam0TKMw8" (at 7m19s), Principles by Ray Dalio, 2 March 2022.

“Computers are not very smart. They don't understand human language, so we have to tell them what to do in a language that both humans and computers can understand.”

Yukihiro Matsumoto (1965) Japanese computer scientist

Yukihiro Matsumoto " I'm a Mormon, Ruby Author and a World-changer https://youtube.com/watch?v=bkh0gPf4Noc" by ComeUntoChrist.org on 2013-08-12.

“Look, as a father and a grandfather — and I’m sure we all feel the same way — I understand how difficult this shortage has been for families all across the country. There is nothing more stressful than the feeling like you can’t get what your child needs — what he or she needs.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, June 2022, Remarks by President Biden During Virtual Meeting on Accelerating Infant Formula Production Through Operation Fly Formula

Family , Country , Way , Feeling

“Those who break the rules ethically are those who have mastered them first and disciplined themselves to understand the necessity of those rules, and break them in keeping with the spirit rather than the letter of the law.”

Jordan Peterson book Beyond Order

Source: Books, Beyond Order (2021), p. 85

Law

“Before a nation can be rebuilt, its citizens need to understand how it was destroyed in the first place: how its institutions were undermined, how its language was twisted, how its people were manipulated”

Anne Applebaum (1964) journalist

Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/z4AdQy3VCmgC?hl=en (October 30, 2012).

People

“I am a German, but I am also, and always have been, a European and have always felt like a European. I have therefore long advocated an understanding with France; I did so, moreover, in the 1920s, during the severest crises, and also in the face of the Reich Government.”

Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967) German statesman, Federal Chancellor of Germany, politician (CDU)

Konrad Adenauer: Memoirs 1945-1953 (1966)

“The attitude that living things are placed here for our benefit still dominates our culture, even where its underpinnings have disappeared. We now need, for purposes of scientific understanding, to find a less human-centered view of the natural world.”

Richard Dawkins book Climbing Mount Improbable

Source: Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), Chapter 8, “Pollen Grains and Magic Bullets” (p. 258)

World , Nature

“[G]ood bankers understand the shortcomings of accounting and know how to correct for them.”

Henry Kaufman (1927) American economist

On Money and Markets (2000)

“We don’t want to be manipulated by right-wing elitist billionaires or by left-wing guys that don’t understand our life on the ground that is living in fear of crime, that is living as a result of inflation that is killing us in many parts of the country. We need gas to go to work.”

Al Sharpton (1954) American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and television/radio talk show host

“Democratic Outlook for 2022 Midterms” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea8LKGL0xXo MSNBC (April 11, 2022)

Fear , Guy , Country , Life

“[M]y friends and I are totally at a loss to understand the new form of the Mass... Every attendance at Mass leaves me without comfort or edification. I shall never, pray God, apostatize but church-going is now a bitter trial.”

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer

Letter to Archbishop Heenan (3 January 1965), quoted in A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh and John Carmel Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes: Expanded Edition, ed. Alcuin Reid (2001), pp. 69, 71

God , Loss

“It is important for me to feel that the barometer, which the business is, helps me understand whether the winds blow the right way or not.”

Viktor Yanukovych (1950) Ukrainian politician who was the President of Ukraine

Source: [2011-06-23, Янукович хочет понять, куда движется Украина, https://news.liga.net/economics/news/yanukovich-khochet-ponyat-kuda-dvizhetsya-ukraina, 2022-06-12, LIGA, ru]

Business , Help , Way , Feeling

“I have to confess... for a long time, for many-many years, I am a convinced lesbian. I struggle to understand the representatives of sexual minorities when so many beautiful women are around you.”

Vitali Klitschko (1971) Ukrainian boxer and politician

2013
Source: [Виталий Кличко: Я - убежденный лесбиян, https://sportrbc.ru/news/5755950e9a7947e47e135f3d, 2022-06-13, РБК Спорт, ru]

Time , Beauty , Women

“Advice can never take the place of experience. That which advice can sometimes do is to make experience more fruitful of good; to help us the better to understand the lessons of life; and when those lessons are sharp and unwelcome, to bear them with an even and unruffled mind.”

Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow (1887–1952) British politician, agriculturalist and colonial administrator (1887-1952)

12 September 1936, Advice to the pupils of the Bishop Cotton School, Simla, also quoted in Speeches and Statements of the Marquess of Linlithgow, p. 19

Help , Life

“The voices of the grassroots, of people, must always be heard if we are to understand the past and move effectively toward the future”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century (2017)

Past , Future , People

“We’ve moved beyond our ability to understand our technology.”

Kim Stanley Robinson (1952) American science fiction writer

Source: Blue Mars (1996), Chapter 13, “Experimental Procedures” (p. 692)

“Someone tried to tell me the other day that the only habitable place in America is California. But I just don’t understand how you could spend your life restricted to summer outfits.”

Max Barry book Company

Source: Company (2006), p. 108

Life , Summer

“When once it is no longer possible to understand how a man gives his life for his country – and the time will come – then all is over with that faith also, and the idea of the Fatherland is dead; and then, perhaps, we shall be envied, as we envy the saints their inward and irresistible strength.”

Ernst Jünger book Storm of Steel

Storm of Steel (1920)

Life , Faith , Time , Dead

“Women are wiser than men, because they know less and understand more.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

Quoted in: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657.
https://allauthor.com/quotes/42366/
From other writings

Women , Men

“It is not truth that is validated by a proof, but one’s understanding of it.”

Raheel Farooq Pakistani writer

Why I Am a Muslim: And a Christian and a Jew (2020)

Truth