“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker
All the Trouble in the World (1994)
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher
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.”
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
“Every discord is a harmony not understood. Happiness is a disease, and pain, a medicine.”
Swami Narayanananda (1902–1988) Indian guru
The Way to Peace, Power and Long Life (1945), p. 121 (2001 edition)
Jean Tinguely (1925–1991) Swiss painter and sculptor
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.
Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister
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 <br class="br">2006- 2010
Jani Allan (1952) South African columnist and broadcaster
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 <br class="br">Other
“I write to understand as much as to be understood.”
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor