I understand people’s suffering, people’s pain, more than you will every know yourself.
—Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–97) English Royal, Humanitarian, Peace Activist
The key to why things change is the key to everything.
—James E. Burke (1925–2012) American Business Executive
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
I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes. The greater part of all mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
I don’t understand you. You don’t understand me. What else do we have in common?
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
If you do not understand a man you cannot crush him. And if you do understand him, very probably you will not.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
If you can keep your head about you when all about you are losing theirs, its just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.
—Jean Kerr (1922–2003) Irish-American Author, Playwright
Many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request.
—Unknown
Men are admitted into Heaven not because they have curbed and governed their passions or have no passions, but because they have cultivated their understandings. The treasures of Heaven are not negations of passion, but realities of intellect, from which all the passions emanate uncurbed in their eternal glory. The fool shall not enter into Heaven let him be ever so holy.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Don’t write merely to be understood. Write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill-will.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
—Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian Astronomer, Physicist, Mathematician
Is an intelligent human being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding?
—Philip Roth (1933–2018) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
It is a common fault never to be satisfied with our fortune, nor dissatisfied with our understanding.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The man who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Are you then unable to recognize unless it has the same sound as yours?
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
The great art of learning is to understand but little at a time.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
A man who pretends to understand women is ad manners. For him to really to understand them is bad morals.
—Henry James (1843–1916) American-born British Novelist, Writer
To understand one woman is not necessarily to understand any other woman.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
The secret of forgiving everything is to understand nothing.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
There exists a passion for comprehension, just as there exists a passion for music. That passion is rather common in children, but gets lost in most people later on. Without this passion there would be neither mathematics nor natural science.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find “tomorrow” on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday’s defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, “If I had my life to live over again. “Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day! Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.
—Og Mandino (1923–96) American Self-Help Author
Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.
—J. K. Rowling (b.1965) English Novelist
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
If the human brain were simple enough to understand, we’d be so simple we couldn’t.
—Unknown
It is not the language but the speaker that we want to understand.
—The Upanishads Sacred Books of Hinduism