Understanding Oneself And Others Quotes

“I'm starting to realize that people lack good mirrors. It's so hard for anyone to show us how we look, & so hard for us to show anyone how we feel.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“The main condition for the achievement of love is the overcoming of one's narcissism. The narcissistic orientation is one in which one experiences as real only that which exists within oneself, while the phenomena in the outside world have no reality in themselves, but are experienced only from the viewpoint of their being useful or dangerous to one. The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see other people and things as they are, objectively, and to be able to separate this objective picture from a picture which is formed by one's desires and fears.”
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

“She's a woman, you're a dude. You're not supposed to understand her. That's not what she's after.... She doesn't want you to understand her. She knows that's impossible. She just wants you to understand yourself. Everything else is negotiable.”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”
― Theodore Roethke

“When we understand people;
when we understand situations;
when we understand what matters;
when we understand the why’s, the what’s and the how’s;
when we understand the trigger of actions, we least inflict pain on ourselves and unto others.”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“We only know a tiny proportion about the complexity of the natural world. Wherever you look, there are still things we don’t know about and don’t understand. [...] There are always new things to find out if you go looking for them.”
― David Attenborough

“What a laugh, though. To think that one human being could ever really know another. You could get used to each other, get so habituated that you could speak their words right along with them, but you never know why other people said what they said or did what they did, because they never even know themselves. Nobody understands anybody.”
― Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Hegemon

“But there was a time when each of us stood naked before the world, confronting life as a serious problem with which we were intimately and passionately concerned. There was a time when it was of vital interest to us to find out whether there was a God or not. Obviously the existence or otherwise of a future life must be of the very first importance to somebody who is going to live her present one, because her manner of living it must hinge on the problem. There was a time when Free Love versus Catholic Morality was a question of as much importance to our hot bodies as if a pistol had been clapped to our heads.

Further back, there were times when we wondered with all our souls what the world was, what love was, what we were ourselves.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“There were several ways of understanding her: there was what she said, and there was what she meant, and there was something between the two, that was neither.”
― Henry James, The Europeans

“Imagine how many suicide victims would still be with us, if only the right person said the right thing at the right time.”
― Wayne Gerard Trotman

“The moment I saw a dream of forever,
Your betrayal woke me up.
The moment I felt a touch of muse,
Your lies choke me up.
The moment I heard a tune of serenity,
Your abandonment tore me up.”
― Hareem Ch, Hankering for Tranquility

“I understand we all have our differences. But while learning about history I've read about white people coming together, Jews coming together, Spanish coming together, different cultures and religions understanding and coming together despite their differences. Slavery was never something that shocked me. What shocks me is how black people have not yet overcome the odds and we're such strong smart people. Why we can't just stand together?”
― Jonathan Anthony Burkett

“Broke again? Damn you can never be broken. You can fall, you can get bruises, but you can never be broken. You’re living, breathing, and the best example for yourself. You’re made of galaxies, atoms, fire, and so much more. Never underestimate the magic in you. The light inside you can never be handled by the moths. It’s never your mistake, it’s the eyes that are blind to see the love in your eyes, it’s the hearts that don’t understand how your heart beats for them, it’s the ears that can’t hear the screams you try to raise to make them listen and it’s the soul that’s never able to comprehend the message you sent to them.”
― Hareem Ch, Breaking a Pledge

“the underlying struggle - between worlds of plenty and worlds of want; between the modern and the ancient; between those who embrace our teeming, colliding, irksome diversity, while still insisting on a set of values that binds us together, and those who would seek, under whatever flag or slogan or sacred text, a certainty and simplification that justifies cruelty toward those not like us...”
― Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

“Não entendo. Isso é tão vasto que ultrapassa qualquer entender. Entender é sempre limitado. Mas não entender pode não ter fronteiras. Sinto que sou muito mais completa quando não entendo. Não entender, do modo como falo, é um dom. Não entender, mas não como um simples de espírito. O bom é ser inteligente e não entender. É uma benção estranha, como ter loucura sem ser doida. É um desinteresse manso, é uma doçura de burrice. Só que de vez em quando vem a inquietação: quero entender um pouco. Não demais: mas pelo menos entender que não entendo.”
― Clarice Lispector

“I really tried, or so I thought, to avoid lying, but it seemed to me that they forced it on me by the difference in their vision of things, so that I was always transposing reality for them into something they could understand.”
― Mary McCarthy, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood

“I am responsible for what I said, I am not responsible for what you have not understood”
― Dr.P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“And then I notice the music flooding out of every part of the apartment at once — the couch, the walls, even the floor — and I know Bennies alone in Lou’s studio, pouring music down around us. A minute ago it was “Don’t Let Me Down”. Then it was Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”. Now it’s Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger”. Listening, I think, You will never know how much I understand you.”
― Jennifer Egan

“There is no shame in not knowing something. The shame is not being willing to learn.”
― Alison Croggon, The Naming

“Life is like a roadtrip: you pass by many people and many situations and they're all different. You don't stop on your roadtrip to try and fix everything that you see along the way. Or judge every encounter as good or bad. You only experience what you see as part of your roadtrip, leaving everyone and everything at that. A compassionate acceptance.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Thinking is a defense mechanism. Not all the time, of course, but when in situations where strong emotions are involved, throwing yourself into your head is a way to keep yourself out of your feelings and out of your body. Your feelings need to pass through your body, you need to feel them run through your body in order to let go of anything. But that's an excruciating experience and we keep on trying to protect ourselves from it by running into our heads, being analytical, being logical, and doing everything to stay in our brains. This has been my own number one defense mechanism, the wall that I know I need to tear down a little more each day.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Self-love is not a form of narcissism or self-indulgence. It is a profound recognition of one's own worth, an unconditional acceptance of ourselves in entirety, with both strengths and weaknesses.”
― Marie Chieze, Palabras de Chamán: 50 Citas de Paching Hoé Lambaiho (Sabiduría Ancestral para Transformar Tu Vida)

“I have found the courage to see people exactly where they are at, without acting on my need to gloss them over, to coat them with sugar, to paint them nicely. And then I have applied that courage to embracing and accepting them exactly that way, for where and who they precisely are.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“After the sun sets, it's impossible not to consider what awaits us in the great beyond. Everywhere there is, you will find a story about God closing his eyes and leaving us to fend for ourselves.”
― - Philosopher D.L. Lewis

“Understanding why you did a thing, he had heard it said many times, did not make it easier to do it. If anything the opposite was true.”
― T.M Cicinski, A Patchwork Of Moonlight And Shadow

“Whether it is a person, an animal, a plant or an inanimate thing, if you can manage to read his mind correctly and understand the language his soul speaks, a wonderful bridge will be built between you and him that can change both you and him!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Everything said will be true from the perceived reality of the source. Even if it is opposite to what I think, it could be true in some context. I can stay calm and not lose balance and avoid judgment while sharing my thought which comes from my perceived reality.”
― Ramesh Sood, Untitled Life’s Random Lessons : A tapestry of anecdotes on life, mindset, leadership, communication and relationships.

“Pieces of Glass
When I look into your eyes
I see the doubt of lingering questions.
The strength of our love
And if it can prevail.
I see the things you’ve been through.
The trail of swept pieces of broken glass.
Shining through the dark.
I’ve both a broom and a dustpan.
And don’t have a problem,
Getting on hand and knee.
Sometimes, that is stronger than
Fear itself. The strength of another to help
Get you through the dark.
That is what you taught me
The first time I met you.
I didn’t see any of your fears,
Anything that resembled a troubled past.
I saw your light. Okay, maybe a hint of glass.
But there isn’t a part of me
That is afraid to hold on to you
With everything that I have.
When you look into my eyes.
One of the things I sincerely
Hope that you see.
Is trust.
Trust to love gain”
― Kewayne Wadley, Twelve Midnight

“When I look into your eyes
I see the doubt of lingering questions.
The strength of our love
And if it can prevail.
I see the things you’ve been through.
The trail of swept pieces of broken glass.
Shining through the dark.
I’ve both a broom and a dustpan.
And don’t have a problem,
Getting on hand and knee.
Sometimes, that is stronger than
Fear itself. The strength of another to help
Get you through the dark.
That is what you taught me
The first time I met you.
I didn’t see any of your fears,
Anything that resembled a troubled past.
I saw your light. Okay, maybe a hint of glass.
But there isn’t a part of me
That is afraid to hold on to you
With everything that I have.
When you look into my eyes.
One of the things I sincerely
Hope that you see.
Is trust.
Trust to love gain”
― Kewayne Wadley, Twelve Midnight

“As human beings, we must understand that what we see is not always what it is. The rivers are also thirsty, and a tree on the cliff's edge isn’t lonely.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya, Safa Tempo: Poems New & Selected