M. John Harrison quote: “Generally, it was impossible to understand the motives of aliens.”

“The hardest theme in science fiction is that of the alien. The simplest solution of all is in fact quite profound—that the real difficulty lies not in understanding what is alien, but in understanding what is self.”

Greg Bear (1951) American writer best known for science fiction

We are all aliens to each other, all different and divided. We are even aliens to ourselves at different stages of our lives. Do any of us remember precisely what it was like to be a baby?
"Introduction to 'Plague of Conscience'", The Collected Stories of Greg Bear (2002)

“To understand possible means to understand impossible.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

Understanding http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/understanding-4/
From the poems written in English

“Foregrounding, as I understand it, is prominence that is motivated”

Michael Halliday (1925–2018) Australian linguist

Source: 1970s and later, Explorations in the functions of language, 1973, p. 112 cited in: Laura Hidalgo-Downing (2000) Negation, Text Worlds, and Discourse. p. 4.

“The hardest theme in science fiction is that of the alien. The simplest solution of all is in fact quite profound—that the real difficulty lies not in understanding what is alien, but in understanding what is self. We are all aliens to each other, all different and divided. We are even aliens to ourselves at different stages of our lives. Do any of us remember precisely what it was like to be a baby?”

Greg Bear (1951) American writer best known for science fiction

"Introduction to 'Plague of Conscience'", The Collected Stories of Greg Bear (2002)

“I understand that the hyper-partisanship in Washington makes people feel alienated.”

Olympia Snowe (1947) United States Senator from Maine

As quoted in "Can Olympia Snowe Change Washington?", interview by Kathleen Fleury and Virginia M. Wright, in Downeast magazine (October 2014).
Context: I understand that the hyper-partisanship in Washington makes people feel alienated. They're frustrated and they're angry, and they should be, but they can do something about it. We've got to turn it around. I'm concerned it's going to become institutionalized. … Make candidates accountable for making government work. That should be a debate question: What are you going to do to make government work? You can't sit on your hands and say, "No, I want it 100% my way." I don't know how this evolved, but I find it irrational — you don't demand that in any other sphere of life. The country is now in a virtual standstill. We can't begin to measure the reverberation of all this legislative neglect five, six, or whatever years into the future.

“You have to give everyone ugly motives for everything they do, because ugly motives are all you understand.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“Any attempt to understand the motivation of these occurrences is blocked by our own anthropomorphism. Where there are no men, there cannot be motives accessible to men.”

Stanisław Lem book Solaris

Source: Solaris (1961), Ch. 9: "The Liquid Oxygen", p. 134

“Try to understand me. Nothing is impossible.”

Gracie Allen (1902–1964) American actress and comedienne

Source: How to Become President (1940), Ch. 4 : How to attract attention and be drafted

“It is impossible to understand the significance of Christ without understanding the whole history of Biblical religion.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Undated manuscript, "The Eternal Significance of Christ", an outline of a sermon on 2 Corinthians, at the King Center http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/eternal-significance-christ

“To fight against this lack of understanding, against a whole world of non-understanding, was impossible.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

"A Hunger Artist"
The Complete Stories (1971)

“Generally, it was impossible to understand the motives of aliens.”

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