Literature is a bridge between people, cultures, and times. It allows us to understand others and ourselves

I was pleased my dad communicated in Arabic smoothly – his dad sent him to take Arabic from a sheik – and we had Arab companions. His assignment of understanding the Arabs – governmental issues as well as verse – was significant; he accepted it as employment.

Peter Elers, one of the first openly gay vicars in the Church of England, who blessed a lesbian ‘marriage’ in 1976 on the understanding that, if the Church blessed battleships and budgerigars, it ought to find it in its heart to bless men and women in love

Love all God’s creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all; and when once thou perceive this, thou wilt thenceforward grow every day to a fuller understanding of it: until thou come at last to love the whole world with a love that will then be all-embracing and universal.

I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.

I don’t understand how people can believe in God, even when I myself think of him everyday.

When we’re young, we don’t understand why our parents bug us so much with school and doing homework, but it’s a blessing to have that support at home

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

I don’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little – if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny. And it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.

Never fear dying, beloved. Dying is the last, but the least matter that a Christian has to be anxious about. Fear living – that is a hard battle to fight, a stern discipline to endure, a rough voyage to undergo.

I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos in which we float, like a mote of dust in the morning sky.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves

I thought that after giving birth to my daughter that six weeks would be enough time for me to recover mentally and physically. I also thought that I’d be able to bring her with me on tour, but I think I underestimated this whole mommy thing

There’s more, much more, to Christmas than candlelight and cheer. It’s the spirit of sweet friendship that brightens all year. It’s thoughtfulness and kindness. It’s hope reborn again, for peace, for understanding, and for goodwill to men

Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning

Willingness to be puzzled by what seem to be obvious truths is the first step towards gaining understanding of how the world works.

When I became a man, and I started to understand the difference between the truth and what your parents are supposed to tell you, there’s a difference, know what I mean?

In order to understand life, you have to live it, not observe it.

I had an occasional flash of understanding, but then got selfishly wrapped up again in my own problems and pleasures.

If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is.

The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything

If you really understand Zen… you can use any book. You could use the Bible. You could use Alice in Wonderland. You could use the dictionary, because… the sound of the rain needs no translation

To stand face to face with insecurity is still not to understand it. To understand it you must be it.

One has no right to love or hate anything if one has not acquired a thorough knowledge of its nature. Great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you know it but little you will be able to love it only a little or not at all.

The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.