There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
A world community can exist only with world communication, which means something more than extensive shortwave facilities scattered about the globe. It means common understanding, a common tradition, common ideas, and common ideals.
—Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) American Educator
Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third.
—Marge Piercy (b.1936) American Poet, Novelist, Social Activist
Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech.
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
When a good man is hurt all who would be called good must suffer with him.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
It is not the language but the speaker that we want to understand.
—The Upanishads Sacred Books of Hinduism
If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
To understand is to perceive patterns.
—Isaiah Berlin (1907–97) British Liberal Philosopher, Historian
In youth we learn; in age we understand.
—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian Novelist
The one who understands does not speak; the one who speaks does not understand
—Chinese Proverb
It is better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
No one knows what strength of parts he has till he has tried them.—And of the understanding one may most truly say, that its force is generally greater than it thinks till it is put to it.—Therefore the proper remedy is, to set the mind to work, and apply the thoughts vigorously to the business, for it holds in the struggles of the mind, as in those of war, that to think we shall conquer is to conquer.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Every man hears only what he understands.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather what he does not say.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
We are slaves to whatever we don’t understand
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher
Martyrs must choose between being forgotten, mocked or made use of. As for being understood, never.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilized men.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.
—Harper Lee (1926–2016) American Novelist
The best cure for worry, depression, melancholy, brooding, is to go deliberately forth and try to lift with one’s sympathy the gloom of somebody else.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist, Playwright, Critic
It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck, people understood each other, they would never agree.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Friendship: Never explain—your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it anyway. A real friend never gets in your way, unless you happen to be on the way down. A friend is someone you can do nothing with and enjoy it. However much we guard ourselves against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us. It is not so much the example of others we imitate, as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
The man who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
We can sometimes love what we do not understand, but it is impossible completely to understand what we do not love.
—Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) Irish-born Literary, Art Critic
Between
Our birth and death we may touch understanding
As a moth brushes a window with its wing.
—Christopher Fry (1907–2005) English Poet, Playwright
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
Seek first to understand and then to be understood.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
We shall see but little way if we require to understand what we see. How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding! How many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile!
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Folks never understand the folks they hate.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
People on the whole are very simpleminded in whatever country one finds them. They are so simple as to take literally, more often than not, the things their leaders tell them.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
A single moment of understanding can flood a whole life with meaning.
—Anonymous
Find peace with yourself by accepting not only what you are, but what you are never going to be.
—Anonymous
Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.
—Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) American Astronaut
Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.
—J. K. Rowling (b.1965) English Novelist
The thing is plain. All that men really understand, is confined to a very small compass; to their daily affairs and experience; to what they have an opportunity to know, and motives to study or practice. The rest is affectation and imposture.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
‘Tis better to understand, than to be understood.
—Unknown
I hold myself indebted to any one from whose enlightened understanding another ray of knowledge communicates to mine.—Realty to inform the mind is to correct and enlarge the heart.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
No man thoroughly understands a truth until he has contended against it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
I don’t understand you. You don’t understand me. What else do we have in common?
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
The fact that you are willing to say, “I do not understand, and it is fine,” is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker
Telling someone something he does not understand is pointless, even if you add that he will not be able to understand it.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
When I wanted to understand what is happening today, I try to decide what will happen tomorrow; I look back, a page of history is worth a volume of logic.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
People in high life are hardened to the wants and distresses of mankind as surgeons are to their bodily pains.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
They understand but a little who understand only what can be explained.
—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian Novelist