
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
All the Trouble in the World (1994)
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
Source: The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception
“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.”
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
“Every discord is a harmony not understood. Happiness is a disease, and pain, a medicine.”
The Way to Peace, Power and Long Life (1945), p. 121 (2001 edition)
Quote from an interview on the Belgian radio, 1982; As cited in: Andersson, Patrik Lars. Euro-pop: the mechanical bride stripped bare in Stockholm, even. (2001). p. 50.
Quotes, 1980's
Context: With Dada I.... have in common a certain mistrust toward power. We don't like authority, we don't like power, To me art is a form of manifest revolt, total and complete. It's a political attitude which doesn't need to found a political party. It's not a matter of taking power; when you are against it, you can't take it. We're against all forms of force which aggregate and crystallize an authority that oppresses people. Obviously this is not a characteristic of my art alone - it's much more general, a basic political attitude. It's a clear intention, more necessary today than ever, to oppose all forms of force emanating from a managing, centralizing political power.
interview with TF-1 Television Channel (France) http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/text/speeches/2006/07/12/1829_type82916_108548.shtml, taken on July 12, 2006
2006- 2010
Speaking in 1997 during an interview with The Independent about her South-Africa related political discussions with friend Mangosuthu Buthelezi http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970406/ai_n14117510
Other
“I write to understand as much as to be understood.”