This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Fear when people understand what each other mean, they see, for the most part, that controversy is either superfluous or hopeless." - John Henry Newman, aka Cardinal Newman and Blessed John Henry Newman
"Children seem to learn to talk by inventing their own words and rules: by experimenting with language. Children make statements to adults and then wait for adults to put the statements into adult language so they can make a comparison… If the adult says nothing or simply continues the conversation, the child assumes his or her utterance is correct. When adults “correct” – that is, expand in adult language what the children have said – they are providing feedback. The adult and the child are actually speaking different languages, but they understand the situation, the child can compare their different ways of saying the same thing." - Judith M. Newman
"Many people see things but few understand them." - Yiddish Proverbs
"If the human brain was so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t." - Emerson M. Pugh
"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand." - Putt's Law NULL
"You say that you are sent to instruct us how to worship the Great Spirit agreeably to His mind; and, if we do not take hold of the religion which you white people teach, we shall be unhappy hereafter. You say that you are right and we are lost. How do we know this to be true? We understand that your religion is written in a book. If it was intended for us, as well as you, whey has not the Great Spirit given to tus, and not only to us, but what did He not give to our forefathers the knowledge of that book, with the means of understanding it rightly? We only know what you tell us about it. How shall we know when to believe, being so often deceived by the white people? Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the book?" - Red Jacket, aka Sagoyewatha NULL
"We can understand and relate to most people better if you look at them – no matter how impressive they may be – as if they are children. For most of us never really grow up or mature all that much – we simply grow taller. Oh, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by fairy tails." -
"The nature of the living Being without me I can understand only through the living Being which is within me." - Albert Schweitzer
"A scientist had a bird in his hand. He saw that it had life and, wanting to find out in what part of the bird's body its life lay, he began dissecting the bird. The result was that the very life he was in search of disappeared. Those who try to understand the mysteries of the inner life intellectually will meet with similar failure. The life they are looking for will vanish in the analysis." - Sadhu Sundar Singh
"Choice is something you have only when you fully understand the available options." - Ezriel Tauber
"Each of us possesses a soul, but we do not prize our souls as creatures in God’s image deserve, and so we do not understand the great secrets which they contain." - Teresa of Avila, aka Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada NULL
"Faith is the knowledge of the meaning of human life, in consequence of which man does not destroy himself but lives. Faith is the force of life. If a man lives he believes in something. If he did not believe there was something to live for, he would not live. If he does not see and understand the unreality of the finite, he believes in the finite; if he sees that unreality, he must believe in the infinite. Without faith it is impossible to live." - Leo Tolstoy, aka Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Tolstoi
"Ask your subordinates about matters you don’t understand or don’t know, and do not lightly express your approval or disapproval." - Mao Tse-tung, alternatively Zedong, Ze dong, aka Chairman Mao
"To know a little less and to understand a little more: that, it seems to me, is our greatest need." - James Ramsey Ullman
"I do not understand how people declare themselves to be believers in God, and at the same time think that God has handed over to a little body of man all truth, and that they are guardians of the rest of humanity." - Vivekananda, fully Sri or Swami Vivekananda, born Narendra Nath Datta NULL
"I am not going to question your opinions. I am not going to meddle with your belief. I am not going to dictate to you mine. All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you." - Frances Wright, known as Fanny Wright
"To understand is hard. Once one understands, action is easy." - Sun Yat-sen
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." - Albert Einstein
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein
"Once people understand that change is a process--a developmental progression with distinct steps to move through--then our capacity to alter behavior is quite impressive. It is a marathon, not a 100-yard dash." - John Norcross
"If you want to understand music better, you can do nothing more important than to listen to it." - Aaron Copland
"It is time for you to understand the purpose of your life. You are a chalice for God’s Love and a vehicle for Him to bless the world. Realize your Divine purpose and your will is aligned with His. Goodness is the theme of all life. See the Perfection in your life and you recapture your Childhood Vision. As you give up patterns of evaluation and cynicism, you accept the benevolence of God. Pain is born of resistance, and joy is a function of the acceptance of God’s whole and Holy Love for you. Find purpose in your joy, and you find purpose in God." - Alan Cohen
"It is time for you to understand the purpose of your life. You are a chalice for God’s Love and a vehicle for Him to bless the world. Realize your Divine purpose and your will is aligned with His. Goodness is the theme of all life. See the Perfection in your life and you recapture your Childhood Vision. As you give up patterns of evaluation and cynicism, you accept the benevolence of God. Pain is born of resistance, and joy is a function of the acceptance of God’s whole and Holy Love for you. Find purpose in your joy, and you find purpose in God." -
"It is time for you to understand the purpose of your life. You are a chalice for God’s Love and a vehicle for Him to bless the world. Realize your Divine purpose and your will is aligned with His. Goodness is the theme of all life. See the Perfection in your life and you recapture your Childhood Vision. As you give up patterns of evaluation and cynicism, you accept the benevolence of God. Pain is born of resistance, and joy is a function of the acceptance of God’s whole and Holy Love for you. Find purpose in your joy, and you find purpose in God." -
"The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax." - Alfred Kazin
"The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past." - Alfred North Whitehead
"The task of theology is to show how the world is founded on something beyond transient fact, and how it issues in something beyond the perishing of occasions. The temporal world is the stage of finite accomplishment. We ask of theology to express that element in perishing lives which is undying by reason of its expression of perfection proper to our finite natures. In this way we shall understand how life includes a mode of satisfaction deeper than joy or sorrow." - Alfred North Whitehead
"The concept of “God” is the way in which we understand this incredible fact – that what cannot be, yet is." - Alfred North Whitehead
"It's essential that we understand that taking care of the planet will be done as we take care of ourselves. You know that you can't really make much of a difference in things until you change yourself." - Alice Walker, fully Alice Malsenior Walker
"He who waits for God fails to understand that he possesses Him. Believe that God and happiness are one, and put all your happiness in the present moment." - André Gide, fully André Paul Guillaume Gide
"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"It is easier to understand a nation by listening to its music than by learning its language." - Author Unknown NULL
"The desire to understand the world and the desire to reform it are the two great engines of progress, without which human society would stand still or retrogress." - Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
"When a man lacks discrimination, his will wanders in all directions, after innumerable aims. Those who lack discrimination may quote the letter of the scripture; but they are really denying its inner truth. They are full of worldly desires and hungry for the rewards of heaven. They use beautiful figures of speech; they teach elaborate rituals, which are supposed to obtain pleasure and power for those who practice them. But, actually, they understand nothing except the law of Karma that chains men to rebirth. Those whose discrimination is stolen away by such talk grow deeply attached to pleasure and power. And so they are unable to develop that one-pointed concentration of the will, which leads a man to absorption in God." - Bhagavad Gītā, simply known as Gita NULL
"The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this. The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is known that true peace, which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men." - Black Elk, formallly Heȟáka Sápa NULL
"The wisdom of God says, “I alone can make you understand who you are.” God has willed to make Himself quite recognizable to those who seek Him with all their heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from Him with all their heart. There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition." - Blaise Pascal