Understanding Quotes - Page 38

• A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.

  Frank Herbert

  Inspirational, Business, Moving

  Frank Herbert (2003). “Dune”, p.35, Penguin

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• In a story you only had to wish, you only had to write it down and you could have the world...It seemed so obvious now that it was too late: a story was a form of telepathy. By means of inking symbols onto a page, she was able to send thoughts and feelings from her mind to her reader's. It was a magical process, so commonplace that no one stopped to wonder at it. Reading a sentence and understanding it were the same thing; as with the crooking of a finger, nothing lay between them. There was no gap during which the symbols were unraveled.

  Ian Mcewan

  Reading, Writing, Mean

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• Speaking, writing, and discoursing are not mere acts of communication; they are above all acts of compulsion. Please follow me. Trust me, for deep feeling and understanding require total committment.

  Trinh T. Minh-ha

  Communication, Writing, Feelings

  Trinh T. Minh-Ha (2009). “Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism”, p.52, Indiana University Press

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• My understanding of the meaning of a book is that the book itself disappears from sight, that it is chewed alive, digested and incorporated into the system as flesh and blood which in turn creates new spirit and reshapes the world.

  Henry Miller

  Book, Sight, Blood

  Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

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• If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death Perhaps the world can teach us as when everything seems dead but later proves to be alive.

  Pablo Neruda

  Moving, Sadness, Silence

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• we can learn to trust our maternal selves and to have faith in the innate goodness and purity of our children - even when we feel overwhelmed and the kids are pushing all our buttons. we can support one another....we can be understanding of each other and easier on ourselves.

  Katrina Kenison

  Children, Kids, Self

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• We cannot understand without wanting to understand, that is, without wanting to let something be said...Understanding does not occur when we try to intercept what someone wants to say to us by claiming we already know it.

  Hans-Georg Gadamer

  Trying, Doe, Want

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• Our spirits have their own private way of understanding each other, of becoming intimate, while our external persons are still trapped in the commerce of ordinary words, in the slavery of social rules. Souls have their own needs and their own ambitions, which the body ignores when it sees that it's impossible to satisfy them or achieve them.

  Luigi Pirandello

  Ambition, Soul, Ordinary

  Luigi Pirandello (1987). “The late Mattia Pascal”, Eridanos Library

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• I knew that our time together was almost over, I asked her if she liked sports, she asked me if I liked chess, I asked her if she liked fallen trees, she went home with her father, the center of me followed her, but I was left with the shell of me, I needed to see her again, I couldn't explain my need to myself, and that's why it was such a beautiful need, there's nothing wrong with not understanding yourself.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  Beautiful, Sports, Father

  Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel”, p.113, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion; the more intelligent, the less sane.

  George Orwell

  Intelligent, Delusion, Sane

  George Orwell (1961). “1984”

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• Let us not speak of tolerance. This negative word implies grudging concessions by smug consciences. Rather, let us speak of mutual understanding and mutual respect.

  Dominique Pire

  Respect, Negative Words, Tolerance

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• The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things-the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.

  Samuel Johnson

  Graduation, Education, Teaching

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• Be less of a judge and you will be surprised that when you become a witness and you don't judge yourself, you stop judging others too. And that makes you more human, more compassionate, more understanding.

  Rajneesh

  Spiritual, Judging, Compassionate

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• Memory is slippery. It bends to our understanding of the world, twists to accommodate our prejudices. It is unreliable. Witnesses seldom remember the same things. They identify the wrong people. They give us the details of events that never happened. Memory is slippery, but my memories suddenly feel slipperier.

  Holly Black

  Memories, Giving, People

  Holly Black (2010). “White Cat”, p.73, Simon and Schuster

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• I do not mean to imply that television news deliberately aims to deprive Americans of a coherent, contextual understanding of their world. I mean to say that when news is packaged as entertainment, that is the inevitable result. And in saying that the television news show entertains but does not inform, I am saying something far more serious than that we are being deprived of authentic information. I am saying we are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed.

  Neil Postman

  Mean, Doe, News

  Neil Postman (2005). “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”, p.93, Penguin

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• Sometimes it is only a True Friend who knows what we mean when we try to speak. Somebody who has spent a lot of time with us, and listens carefully to what we are trying to say, and tries to understand.

  Cressida Cowell

  True Friend, Mean, Trying

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• This had been real: real in its flaws and uncertainties, real in its small triumphs, real in its compromises and understanding.

  Juliet Marillier

  Real, Triumph, Compromise

  Juliet Marillier (2011). “Heart's Blood”, p.247, Pan Macmillan

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• It is often claimed that knowledge multiplies so rapidly that nobody can follow it. I believe this is incorrect. At least in science it is not true. The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler. This, of course, goes contrary to what everyone accepts.

  Edward Teller

  Believe, Knowledge, Acceptance

  Edward Teller, Wendy Teller, Wilson Talley (2013). “Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics”, p.2, Basic Books

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• I'm thinking of how unexpected and yet oddly preordained life can be. Events are upon you in an instant, unforseen and without warning, and often times marked with disappointment and tragedy, but equally often leading to a better understanding of the bittersweet truth of life.

  Rob Lowe

  Disappointment, Thinking, Tragedy

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• Don't say anything, because I see that you understand me, and I am afraid of your understanding. I have such a fear of finding another like myself, and such a desire to find one! I am so utterly lonely, but I also have such a fear that my isolation be broken through, and I no longer be the head and ruler of my universe. I am in great terror of your understanding by which you penetrate into my world; and then I stand revealed and I have to share my kingdom with you.

  Anais Nin

  Lonely, Broken, Say Anything

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• Instead of answering her as soon as he saw her hair grow electric, her face more vivid, her eyes like lightning, her body restless and jerky like a racehorse’s, he retired behind this wall of objective understanding, this gentle testing and acceptance of her, just as one watches an animal in the zoo and smiles at his antics, but is not drawn into this mood. It was this which left Lilith in a state of isolation - indeed, like a wild animal in an absolute desert.

  Anais Nin

  Zoos, Wall, Eye

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• Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society the way a child catches measles. But people with more understanding realize that their presuppositions should be chosen after a careful consideration of what world-view is true.

  Francis Schaeffer

  Children, People, Way

  "The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian view of the west".

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• Our lives can only be lived forward and understood backwards. Living a life and understanding it occupy different dimensions.

  Hanif Kureishi

  Different, Dimensions, Backwards

  Hanif Kureishi (2016). “Love in a Blue Time”, p.122, Faber & Faber

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• IMBECILE!" the chef shouted. "Next time why don't you just put your whole HAND in the food, hey? Yes, your whole hand, or maybe your FACE! I arrange the food on plates with care, are you understanding what I am telling you? It is part of the art form of cooking, yes? A lovely plate of food is a thing of beauty! And then you, NUMBSKULL, come along and put your fat greasy FINGERS all over my plate, and SHAKE the plate, and move my food all around the plate until it looks like pigs' vomit!" "Chef Vlad!" I cried out in delight.

  Kenneth Oppel

  Art, Moving, Pigs

  Kenneth Oppel (2009). “Skybreaker”, p.40, Harper Collins

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• A real love letter is made of insight, understanding, and compassion. Otherwise it's not a love letter. A true love letter can produce a transformation in the other person, and therefore in the world. But before it produces a transformation in the other person, it has to produce a transformation within us. Some letters may take the whole of our lifetime to write.

  Nhat Hanh

  Peace, Truth, Real

  Thich Nhat Hanh (2011). “Your True Home: The Everyday Wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh: 365 days of practical, powerful teaching s from the beloved Zen teacher”, p.24, Shambhala Publications

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