Insight Quotes - Page 18

• Trauma reflected upon in tranquility can produce morally stunning insights - literary light! It can also produce maudlin rubbish.

  Jennifer Stone

  Light, Sorrow, Rubbish

  Jennifer Stone (1992). “Telegraph Avenue then”, Regent Pr

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• If there is one sweeping generalization I can make without fear of contradiction, it is that 'change' is the scariest word in the English language Nothing will change in our lives until we change our own behavior. Insight won't do it. Understanding why we do the self-defeating things we do won't make us stop doing them. Nagging and pleading with the other person to change won't do it. We have to act. We have to take the first step down a new road.

  Susan Forward

  Self, Understanding, Nagging

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• One of the major challenges facing creative individuals is that of building upon the continuity of human knowledge while achieving novel insights. ... On the one hand, to intensify an inquiry and develop a sense of commitment to a creative life, the learner needs models, teachers, and collaborators. On the other hand, the individual, while building upon the past, needs to transform it, and thus broaden his or her choices.

  Vera John-Steiner

  Teacher, Commitment, Creativity

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• My prayer is to learn new things, imbibe fresh insights. You must not take life too seriously. You must enjoy the process of living.

  Sonu Nigam

  Prayer, Process, Enjoy

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• However, for the man who studies to gain insight, books and studies are merely rungs of the ladder on which he climbs to the summit of knowledge. As soon as a rung has raised him up one step, he leaves it behind. On the other hand, the many who study in order to fill their memory do not use the rungs of the ladder for climbing, but take them off and load themselves with them to take away, rejoicing at the increasing weight of the burden. They remain below forever, because they bear what should have bourne them.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Memories, Book, Men

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.93, Publishdrive

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• Literature is less involved in giving you answers and more dedicated to giving you insight.

  Junot Diaz

  Giving, Answers, Literature

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• Daniel Levitin has more insights per page than any other neuroscientist I know.  The organized Mind is smart, important, and, as always, exquisitely written.

  Daniel Gilbert

  Smart, Organized Mind, Important

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• Creativity is dangerous. We cannot open ourselves to new insights without endangering the security of our prior assumptions. We cannot propose new ideas without risking disapproval and rejection.

  Robert Grudin

  Creativity, Ideas, Rejection

  Robert Grudin (1990). “The Grace of Great Things: Creativity and Innovation”, Ticknor & Fields

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• The idea of safety had shrunk into particles - one snug moment, then the next. Meanwhile, the brain piped fugues of worry and staged mind-theaters full of tragedies and triumphs, because unfortunately, the fear of death does wonders to focus the mind, inspire creativity, and heightens the senses. Trusting one's hunches only seems gamble if one has time for seem; otherwise the brain goes on autopilot and trades the elite craft of analysis for the best rapid insights that float up from its danger files and ancient bag of tricks.

  Diane Ackerman

  Creativity, Ideas, Worry

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• ... the true seeing is within; and painting stares at you with an insistent imperfection.

  George Eliot

  Imperfection, Painting, Staring

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.2220, Delphi Classics

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• It takes mystical insight to see the beauty and innocence in each other, even when that is not what we are showing to the world. That is why God is needed in intimate relationships, to move us beyond the perceptions that can so often poison love.

  Marianne Williamson

  Moving, Intimate Relationships, Perception

  Source: www.awarenessmag.com

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• Imagination, which in truth
  Is but another name for absolute power
  And clearest insight, amplitude of mind,
  And reason, in her most exalted mood.

  William Wordsworth

  Power, Names, Imagination

  'The Prelude' (1850) bk. 14, l. 190

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• Among people I have met, the few whom I would term “great” all share a kind of unquestioned, fierce dedication; an utter lack of doubt about the value of their activities (or at least an internal impulse that drives through any such angst); and above all, a capacity to work (or at least to be mentally alert for unexpected insights) at every available moment of every day of their lives.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Life, Work, Dedication

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• Let him [the President] once win the admiration and confidence of the country, and no other single force can withstand him, no combination of forces will easily overpower him.... If he rightly interpret the national thought and boldly insist upon it, he is irresistible; and the country never feels the zest of action so much as when the President is of such insight and caliber.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Country, Winning, Zest

  Woodrow Wilson (1961). “Constitutional Government in the United States”, p.68, Transaction Publishers

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• In their precise tracings-out and subtle causations, the strongest and fieriest emotions of life defy all analytical insight.

  Herman Melville

  Emotion, Subtle, Causation

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• Adolescence is the time to enlarge the natural sentiments of pity, friendship, and generosity, the time to develop an understanding of human nature and the varieties of human character, the time to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of all men and to study the history of mankind.

  Louise J. Kaplan

  Strength, Time, Character

  Louise J. Kaplan (1995). “Adolescence: The Farewell to Childhood”, Touchstone Books

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• The painter saw what was, an alternate
  Candor and secrecy inside the skin.

  Thom Gunn

  Skins, Saws, Secrecy

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• What promotes math progress even more than new ideas are new technical tools and habits of thought that encapsulate existing ideas, so that insights of one generation become the instincts of the next.

  Jim Propp

  Math, Science, Ideas

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• It was the world of Southern, rural, black growing up, of folks sitting on porches day and night, of folks calling your mama, 'cause you walked by and didn't speak, and of the switch waiting when you got home so that you could be taught some manners. It was a world of single black older women schoolteachers, dedicated, tough; they had taught your mama, her sisters, and her friends. They knew your people in ways that you never would and shared their insight, keeping us in touch with generations. It was a world where we had a history.

  Bell Hooks

  Growing Up, Home, Night

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• The notion that black folks have nothing to learn from scholarship that may reflect racial or racist biases is dangerous. It promotes closed-mindedness and a narrow understanding of knowledge to hold that "race" is such an overwhelming concept that it negates the validity of any insights contained in a work that may have some racist or sexist aspects.

  Bell Hooks

  Race, Racism, Understanding

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• Not until Freud's writings became popular did descriptions of infants center on relationships with their mothers. The idea that children have feelings of any lasting importance for their development is a very recent invention (or insight if you wish).

  Sandra Scarr

  Mother, Children, Writing

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• It is the task of the scenarist to invent little pieces of business that are so characteristic and give so deep an insight into his creatures, that their personalities clearly and organically unfold before the eyes of the audience so that the latter feel that the actions of these people are contingent upon their characters, that there exists some kind of a logical fate, and that nothing is left to mere accident or coincidence.

  Ernst Lubitsch

  Eye, Character, Fate

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• Christians can not truly evangelize unless they are prepared to be evangelized in the process. In sharing the good news, people are enriched by the spiritual insights, honest questions and depth of devotion demonstrated by those of other faiths. Including others involves listening to them, learning from them. Much of what exists in other faiths may not necessarily be hostile to the kingdom. Christians can learn a lot from other walks of life.

  Eddie Gibbs

  Christian, Spiritual, People

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• I am honored to join the CBS Sports family to inspire, entertain and deliver insight on a platform with amazing women doing what we do best - talk sports. I am excited to have the opportunity to be a part of such a ground-breaking show. Yet we cannot do it alone. We hope to have the support of men and women'

  Lisa Leslie

  Sports, Opportunity, Men

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• The Male Factor is the singularly best business book for women I've read in years. This well-researched yet thoroughly readable book is rich with rare insights into how men really see women in the workplace-and how with a few simple adjustments you can even the playing field.

  Lois P Frankel

  Book, Simple, Men

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