best quotations about
Understanding |
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Quotations
 | How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin. — Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004, American President [1981-1989] 22 likes |
 | Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood. — Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer 18 likes |
 | It is far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has. — Hippocrates, 460-370 BC, Ancient Greek physician, the “Father of Medicine” 15 likes |
 | Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821-1881, Russian writer 13 likes |
 | Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. — Mark Twain, 1835-1910, American writer 11 likes |
 | I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them. — Baruch Spinoza, 1632-1677, Dutch philosopher 9 likes |
 | If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite. — William Blake, 1757-1827, English poet & painter 8 likes |
 | I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander. — Isaac Asimov, 1920-1992, American Sci-Fi writer 8 likes |
 | Some like to understand what they believe in. Others like to believe in what they understand. — Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, 1906-1966, Polish author of maxims 7 likes |
 | Everything has been figured out, except how to live. — Jean-Paul Sartre, 1905-1980, French philosopher 7 likes |
 | Knowledge of the fact differs from knowledge of the reason for the fact. — Aristotle, 384-322 BC, Ancient Greek philosopher 6 likes |
 | To understand is to forgive. — Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662, French thinker 6 likes |
| The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. — Baruch Spinoza, 1632-1677, Dutch philosopher 6 likes |
 | We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest. — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, 1742-1799, German author of maxims 6 likes |
 | It is only when you suffer that you really understand. — Jules Verne, 1826-1905, French writer 6 likes |
 | The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea. — Vladimir Nabokov, 1899-1977, Russian-American writer 6 likes |
 | When two people decide to get a divorce, it isn't a sign that they “don't understand” one another, but a sign that they have, at last, begun to. — Helen Rowland, 1875-1950, American journalist & humorist 5 likes |
 | If men could only know each other, they would never either idolize or hate. — Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American writer 5 likes |
 | You never really know a man until you have divorced him. — Zsa Zsa Gabor, 1917-2016, Hungarian-American actress 4 likes |
 | People want to find a meaning in everything and everyone. That's the disease of our age. — Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish painter 4 likes |
 | To be understood is to prostitute yourself. — Fernando Pessoa, 1888-1935, Portuguese poet & writer 4 likes |
 | The soul has been given its own ears to hear things mind does not understand. — Rumi, 1207-1273, Persian mystic & poet 4 likes |
 | A European says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with me? An American says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with him? — Terry Pratchett, 1948-2015, British writer 4 likes |
 | We should not speak so that it is possible for the audience to understand us, but so that it is impossible for them to misunderstand us. — Quintilian, 35-96 AD, Roman rhetorician 4 likes |
 | Everyone likes me, yet nobody understands me. — Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German-Jewish physicist 3 likes |
 | I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. — Confucius, 551-479 BC, Chinese teacher & philosopher 3 likes |
| What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care. — William Blake, 1757-1827, English poet & painter 3 likes |
 | He that will only believe what he can fully comprehend must either have a very long head, or a very short creed. — Charles Caleb Colton, 1780-1832, English cleric & writer 3 likes |
 | Understanding is a two-way street. — Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962, Wife of the 32nd USA president 3 likes |
 | When you prove yourself capable of one thing and you understand one subject, you can be sure to understand many more. — Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890, Dutch painter 3 likes |
 | Understanding being nothing else, but conception caused by Speech. — Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679, English philosopher 3 likes |
 | The ideal husband understands every word his wife doesn't say. — Alfred Hitchcock, 1899-1980, British film director 3 likes |
 | Close your eyes and see. — Joseph Joubert, 1754-1824, French author of maxims 3 likes |
 | Neurotics are sure that no one understands them, and they wouldn't have it any other way. — Mignon McLaughlin, 1913-1983, American magazine editor 2 likes |
 | “Now I understand,” said the last man. — Arthur Clarke, 1917-2008, British Sci-Fi writer 2 likes |
| I am not bothered by the fact that I am not understood. I am bothered when I do not understand others. — Confucius, 551-479 BC, Chinese teacher & philosopher 2 likes |
 | The greatest thing in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended — and not to take a hint when a hint isn't intended. — Robert Frost, 1874-1963, American poet 2 likes |
 | Do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe in order to understand. — Saint Augustine, 354-430, Christian theologian & philosopher 2 likes |
 | You’ll understand when you've forgotten what you understood before. |
 | Imagination is a poor matter when it has to part company with understanding. |
 | A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. |
 | Liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them. |
 | The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision. |
 | I once saw a bee drowned in honey and then I understood. |
 | When superstitions reach a mathematical clarity, they lead us to a deeper knowledge of the world. |
 | We spend half our life remembering without understanding, and the other half understanding without remembering. |
 | Try to understand men. If you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love. |
 | I’m afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery. |
 | People who understand everything get no stories. |
 | My father represented authority, which meant—to me—that he could not also represent understanding. |
 | I’m not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one who asked why. |
 | To understand what the outside of an aquarium looks like, it’s better not to be a fish. |
| To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead. |
| If you stopped tellin’ people it's all sorted out after they're dead, they might try sorting it all out while they're alive. |
 | To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi. |
 | Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy. |
 | The percept takes priority of the concept. — Marshall McLuhan, 1911-1980, Canadian academic & media theorist |
| It is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behaviour. — Marshall McLuhan, 1911-1980, Canadian academic & media theorist |
 | Yoga is a generic name for any discipline by which one attempts to pass out of the limits of one’s ordinary mental consciousness into a greater spiritual consciousness. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher |
| That within us which seeks to know and to progress is not the mind but something behind it which makes use of it. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher |
| In order to see, you have to stop being in the middle of the picture. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher |
 | On the floor we argue, but in bed we explain. And on the pillow, we understand each other! |
 | Learning does not make one learned: there are those who have knowledge and those who have understanding. The first requires memory and the second philosophy. |
 | I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day. |
 | We use words to understand each other and even, sometimes, to find each other. |
| The difficult thing isn't living with other people, it's understanding them. — José Saramago, 1922-2010, Portuguese writer [Nobel 1998] (Blindness, 1995) |
 | If you think you understand it, it isn't God. |
 | And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but overacuteness of the senses? |
 | The ultimate test ... to see the good in evil and the evil in good. |
 | Anything seems commonplace, once explained. |
 | It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves. |
 | You wait a lifetime to meet someone who understands you, accepts you as you are. At the end, you find that someone, all along, has been you. |
 | Be slow of tongue and quick of eye. |
 | Clarity of text is the only clear sign of the maturity of an idea. |
 | The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of. |
| Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood. |
| The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. |
 | Don't express your ideas too clearly. Most people think little of what they understand, and venerate what they do not. |
Funny Quotes
 | Since I had seen X Files I understand my parents much better. — Zarko Petan, 1929-2014, Slovenian playwright & aphorist 2 likes |
Ancient Greek
 | Wisdom lies in clarity. Σοφόν το σαφές. — Euripides, 480-406 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Orestes 13 likes |
 | Analyze the unknown based on the known. Τα αφανή τοις φανεροίς τεκμαίρου. — Solon, 630-560 BC, Ancient Greek lawmaker & philosopher 8 likes |
 | Focus on the essence of a thing, whether it be through actions or motives or appearances. Πρόσεχε τω υποκειμένω ή τη ενεργεία ή τω δόγματι ή τω σημαινομένω. — Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 AD, Roman Emperor ‐ Meditations VII, 22 ((Hannibal Lecter paraphrased this…)) 6 likes |
 | The wise man understands the new things based on the old things. Ανήρ έννους τα καινά τοις πάλαι τεκμαίρεται. — Sophocles, 496-406 BC, Ancient tragic poet 5 likes |
Movie Quotes
 | Why, a four year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four year-old child. — from the film Duck Soup (1933) 5 likes |
