I started wondering why it is that people line up behind charismatic leaders. It's easy to understand the emergence of a figure who's narcissistic and compelling. But why people follow this person mindlessly - that was the hard question to me.
It's through the small things that we develop our moral imagination, so that we can understand the sufferings of others.
A lot of people who live in Denmark will understand Danish but not necessarily speak it.
There was a time before I felt I was a real writer, when I was a yarn spinner and I just wanted to tell story until it was over. But then there came a time where I was like, 'No, I want to understand something through writing this that I might have not understood before. I want people to come away with something to think about.'
Everybody needs to understand that I learned Arabic from the United States Army as a second language. I never spoke it at home.
I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.
I understand it's my role to realize people's dreams. I'm O.K. with that so long as my songs are my own. No one can take my songs away from me.
People look for patterns in everything. It's what keeps us sane, I suppose. I struggle to see any patterns in my life. I think I can understand depression a bit because of my sister. My own feelings of... I'm aware that, if you feel down, it can be strangely unrelated to circumstances around you. That's just the way life is.
We keep score in life because it matters. It counts. It matters. Too many people opt out and never discover their own abilities because they fear failure. They don't understand commitment.
The biggest lesson I've learned from my children is to look in the mirror at myself, not at them. I've realized that everything I've done has had an impact on them. We have to understand that they are like little paparazzi. They take our picture when we don't want them to and then they show it to us in their behavior.
The only time I did not know how to be, physically, was when I lost a lot of weight. That was the only time I didn't understand my body.
Australia exports millions of tons of coal each year to Asian markets. These same countries are interested in Wyoming coal. I look forward to visiting and seeing a vibrant coal port to better understand the benefits and challenges associated with this method of export.
My first memory was of stories about the past - a past that, according to the storytellers, was superior in every way to the life then being lived. It didn't take me long, however, to understand that the present was all we had, for the past was gone, and nothing could be done about it.
There are two things I enjoy most about my work. First, I get to work with interesting and enthusiastic people who are also fired up about science. Second, every once in a while I have moments in which I suddenly understand the solution to a problem that I've been working on - those are great moments.
I understand people have preconceived notions of who I am or what I do.
Humility has to do with trying to be a vessel of purposes you're content to understand as not your own.
When you are playing, it is so hard to think about what life will be like after football. I understand. When you are playing, and you are young, you think you can play your whole life. You think it will never change. But it will change. You can't play forever. No one can.
Making movies is about control. You need to control your narcissism in the first place, and you need to be disciplined enough to understand the reason for the film. You need to follow the agenda of the film, not a personal agenda or that of the studio. Or, worst of all, of the actors.
I used to be into the Grateful Dead, so I understand the Phish thing.
For what Harley Street specialist has time to understand the body, let alone the mind or both in combination, when he is a slave to thirteen thousand a year?
I have often lost whole days jumping from one Wikipedia article after another in an attempt to understand the full scope of marriage as an institution.
I was late to the Internet. I didn't really understand what it was. I didn't know what an email was.
Every religious tradition is rooted in mysteries I don't pretend to understand, including claims about what happens after we die. But this I know for sure: as long as we're alive, choosing resurrection is always worth the risk.
I was always the observer, trying to understand what was going on. I was always the new kid. Writing became my safe place.
Now that I'm a parent, I understand why my father was in a bad mood a lot.
People didn't think Christian Ponder would get picked in the first or second round, but they don't understand how prepared he was for the pro game through the FSU coaching staff.
I wish I could help everyone to understand this one simple fact: we believe in God because of things we know with our heart and mind, not because of things we do not know. Our spiritual experiences are sometimes too sacred to explain in worldly terms, but that doesn't mean they are not real.
I learned how to cook, began reading books on food. I began to understand about nutrition. It never had occurred to me that what you ate could affect how you felt. It could affect your health. It seems obvious now, but at age 23 or 22 or whatever I was, it wasn't obvious at all.
That inner narrative - the desire to understand the way I am - never really switches off.
At the beginning of every semester, I ask my graduate students whether there is something I should read that will help me understand their work.
My dad used to sell a type of commodity contract. It was so complicated, he was certain his sales people didn't understand what they were selling.
I get the feeling that people from outside the world of contemporary art see it as deserving of mockery, in an emperor's-new-clothes sort of way. I think that's not right and that it's just because they don't understand the discourse. The art world is filled with vibrancy.
Human beings, in their present evolved state, have a limited capacity to digest, understand, and then properly and accurately disseminate events and information to other nodes of discourse.
I'm interested in history, in trying to relate the past to the present and to understand how people thought about their problems and pleasures.
Americans understand that one of our great national strengths is innovation. Great innovators - Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and others - are household names.
Loving oneself isn't hard, when you understand who and what 'yourself' is. It has nothing to do with the shape of your face, the size of your eyes, the length of your hair or the quality of your clothes. It's so beyond all of those things and it's what gives life to everything about you. Your own self is such a treasure.
