understanding

The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.

—Søren Kierkegaard

Not law but gospel, not demand but promise is the center of revelation, even in the days of the old covenant, to which man’s part is to respond in faith and in the walk of faith (Gen. 17:1), just as Paul in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 understood the revelation of God to Abraham.

—Herman Bavinck

The schematicism by which our understanding deals with the phenomenal world … is a skill so deeply hidden in the human soul that we shall hardly guess the secret trick that Nature here employs.

—Immanuel Kant

Knowledge is power—so much we can understand, at least to a certain extent. All knowing is a triumph of the spirit over matter, a subjection of the earth to the lordship of man. But that knowledge should be life—who can understand that?

—Herman Bavinck

The teaching of the New Testament is that God and spiritual things can be known finally only by a direct work of God within the soul. The true understanding of God must be by personal spiritual awareness. The Holy Spirit is indispensable.

—AW Tozer

Sometimes I speak to men and women just as a little girl speaks to her doll. She knows, of course, that the doll does not understand her, but she creates for herself the joy of communication through a pleasant and conscious self-deception.

—Arthur Schopenhauer

It was not to the unsaved that the words “Do not fret” were spoken, but to God-fearing persons capable of understanding spiritual things. We Christians need to watch & pray lest we fall into this temptation by an irritable spirit under the stress & strain of life.

—AW Tozer

“A lot of great fortunes in the world have been made by owning a single wonderful business. If you understand the business and you know what you are doing, you don’t need very many of them.”

Warren Buffett

“Here’s the key to understanding risk: it’s largely a matter of opinion.”

— Howard Marks

“Failing to understand the lessons of history more than anything is what dooms investors to be victimized repeatedly cycle by cycle.”

— Howard Marks

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

George Orwell

If a person understands his life is in his soul and not his body, you can put him in chains or lock him in iron locks and he’ll still remain free.

—Leo Tolstoy

A person can live a good life only if he understands that he’s a spiritual being, united with all beings and with Everything. If a person understands himself merely as a physical being, he’ll live only for himself, and someone who lives only for himself cannot live a good life.

—Leo Tolstoy

“Understanding the love of Jesus lifts the mind above all fear.”

Charles Spurgeon

“Children can learn the Bible as soon as they are capable of understanding anything.”

— Charles Spurgeon

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

—George Orwell

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

—George Orwell

Man’s vocation is to serve God and all people, not to serve some people and do evil to others. Therefore a person who understands his vocation cannot consider himself a member of an individual state.

—Leo Tolstoy

Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another.

—Immanuel Kant

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

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

—Carl Jung

A First Sign of the Beginning of Understanding is the Wish to Die.

—Franz Kafka

The thinking of the mind is twofold: understanding and willing.

René Descartes

The two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely in the acquisition of knowledge.

—René Descartes

With few words I shall make thee understand my soul.

—Michelangelo

After prayer comes peace—the first answer to prayer is the peace of God which passeth all understanding.

—Amy Carmichael

Seeing among the gloomy people an open pleasant smile addressed to you, you begin to understand that everything is not so bad in this world, there is a lot of good ahead of you.

—Taras Shevchenko

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

—Franz Kafka

A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.

—Isaac Newton

The more you know, the less you understand.

—Laozi

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling.

Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.

—Carl Jung