CURATED COLLECTION

The Limits of Human Understanding

The wisest minds have always been the ones most willing to say: this is where my understanding ends.

36 quotes found

“
I write to create a space for understanding.

—Roxane GayWriter, Editor & Critic

Digital Age ERA • North America

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I know a few things about love, and one of them is this: love is not a miracle.

—Warsan ShirePoet

Digital Age ERA • East Africa

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Listening is a form of translation. You have to translate emotions.

—Valeria LuiselliAuthor & Essayist

Digital Age ERA • Latin America

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You won't understand until you've lived it.

—Hanya YanagiharaNovelist & Editor

Digital Age ERA • North America

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Fear is humanity's oldest and most powerful emotion.

—Rosa MonteroJournalist & Novelist

Digital Age ERA • Southern Europe

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Whatever the heart knows, it knows only through sorrow.

—Murasaki ShikibuAuthor

Medieval ERA • East Asia

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The monstrous always dwells in our innermost self.

—Armonía SomersNovelist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

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Fear is a mirror; it shows us what we most deeply dread within ourselves.

—Amparo DávilaWriter

Post-War ERA • Latin America

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Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think.

—Malcolm XActivist & Minister

Post-War ERA • North America

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Even if you dislike a woman, it is still possible to understand her.

—Zhang AilingWriter & Novelist

Early Modern ERA • East Asia

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Writing became a way of making sense of life.

—Bessie HeadNovelist

Late Modern ERA • Southern Africa

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Trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you.

—Gabor MatéPhysician & Author

Digital Age ERA • Eastern Europe

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No one can be happy who has not been honest with herself.

—Henrik IbsenPlaywright

Industrial Age ERA • Nordic

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One must be naked to understand cruelty.

—Armonía SomersNovelist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

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Words do not fall like rain. They fall like stones.

—Alejandra PizarnikPoet

Post-War ERA • Latin America

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Escribir es una forma de exorcismo, de sacar los demonios de dentro.

—Luisa ValenzuelaNovelist & Journalist

Late Modern ERA • Latin America

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I just sing about my life and what I feel. It has to be genuine.

—TemsScholar & Thinker

Digital Age ERA • West Africa

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What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool.

—Oprah WinfreyAuthor & Thinker

Digital Age ERA • North America

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Silence is something to live with, not to be afraid of. It has its own voice.

—Jhumpa LahiriAuthor

Contemporary ERA • South Asia

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The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

—Ernest HemingwayNovelist & Journalist

Early Modern ERA • North America

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