Comprehend Quotes
More Comprehend Quotes
It would be easier for the Devil to go to church and cross himself with holy water than for these people to comprehend the ideas which are accepted facts to us today.
Adolf Hitler— speech in Berlin, 10 December 1940
The corporeal element in man is a large screen and partition that prevents him from perfectly perceiving abstract ideals; this would be the case even if the corporeal element were as pure and superior as the substance of the spheres; how much more must this be the case with our dark and opaque body. However great the exertion of our mind may be to comprehend the Divine Being or any of the ideals, we find a screen and partition between God and us.
maimonides— Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Chapter 9.
I entirely agree with you, as to the ill tendency of the affected doubts of some philosophers, and fantastical conceit of others. I am even so far gone of late in this way of think, that I have quitted several of the sublime notions I had got in their schools for vulgar opinions. And I give it you on my word, since this revolt from metaphysical notions to the plain dictates of nature and common sense, I find my understanding strangely enlightened, so that I can now easily comprehend a great many thing which before were all mystery and riddle.
— Said by Philonous (Berkeley) to Hylas in the opening of dialog 1 with reference to the recent surge philosophic endeavors (Locke, Newton, et al) that seemed to lead to skepticism about the existence of the world
"Reality is, after all, too big for our frail understanding to fully comprehend. Nevertheless, we have to build our life on the theory which contains the maximum truth.We cannot sit still because we cannot, or do not , know the Absolute Truth."
subhas chandra bose— As quoted in An Indian pilgrim: an unfinished autobiography (1997) by himsel, Sisir Kumar Bose, and Sugata Bose, p. 124
Then let every one of us, being warned by this sentence of the angel, acknowledge that he as yet cleaves to first principles, or, at least, does not comprehend all those things which are necessary to be known; and that therefore progress is to be made to the very end of life: for this is our wisdom, to be learners to the end.
john calvin— Commentaries on the Prophet Zechariah. Part 9
In viewing the scheme of redemption, I seem like one viewing a vast and complicated machine of exquisite contrivance; what I comprehend of it is wonderful, what I do not, is, perhaps, more so still.
richard cecil— p. 422. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
....but I use the word (devotion) in a greater latitude so as to comprehend under it faith, hope, love, fear, trust, humility, submission, honour , reverence, adoration, thanksgiving in a word all that duty which we owe to God.
john norris— Reason and Religion; or, The Grounds and Measures of Devotion. Part I, Introduction, Section VIII.
He that would speak Divine things in a language which living men of to-day can comprehend, must keep up with the researches and discoveries of men who study nature, and put her words into the speech of the present.
john heyl vincent— p. 414. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
It is fortunate that each generation does not comprehend its own ignorance. We are thus enabled to call our ancestors barbarous.
charles dudley warner— Backlog Studies, "Second Study” (1873)
It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature.
— Albert Einstein in Mein Weltbild (1931), as quoted in Introduction to Philosophy (1935) by George Thomas White Patrick and Frank Miller Chapman, p. 44
Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires a sorest need. Not one of all the purple Host Who took the Flag today Can tell the definition So clear of Victory As he defeated dying On whose forbidden ear The distant strains of triumph Burst agonized and clear!
— 67: Success is counted sweetest
Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction , to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there.
richard feynman— chapter 6, “Probability and Uncertainty — the Quantum Mechanical View of Nature,” p. 127-128
No human mind can comprehend all the knowledge which guides the actions of society.
friedrich hayek— p. 4 (The Constitution of Liberty (1960))
It may indeed prove to be far the most difficult and not the least important task for human reason rationally to comprehend its own limitations. It is essential for the growth of reason that as individuals we should bow to forces and obey principles which we cannot hope fully to understand, yet on which the advance and even the preservation of civilization depend.
friedrich hayek— "'Conscious' Direction and the Growth of Reason"p. 92
Divine Providence is connected with Divine intellectual influence, and the same beings which are benefited by the latter so as to become intellectual, and to comprehend things comprehensible to rational beings, are also under the control of Divine Providence, which examines all their deeds with a view of rewarding or punishing them. ...the method of which our mind is incapable of understanding.
maimonides— Ch.17 (Part III)
My opinion is this: the cause of the error of all these schools is their belief that God's knowledge is like ours; each school points to something withheld from our knowledge, and either assumes that the same must be the case in God's knowledge, or at least finds some difficulty how to explain it. ...they likewise demonstrated... that our intellect and our knowledge are insufficient to comprehend the true idea of His essence. ...they came to the absurd conclusion that that which is required for our knowledge is also required for God's knowledge.
maimonides— Ch.20 (Part III)
What they, in their innocence , cannot comprehend is that a properly constituted, healthy , decent man never writes, acts, or composes.
thomas mann— "Tonio Kröger" on general opinions about artists.
Galileo wrote that 'the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics; without its help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it.'
steven pinker— p. 359 (How the Mind Works (1997))
A liberal education forms... a single body. Those, therefore, who from tender years receive instruction in the various forms of learning, recognize the same stamp on all the arts, and an intercourse between all studies, and so they more readily comprehend them all.
vitruvius— Chapter I, Sec. 12
In the midst of all this great variety of subjects, an individual cannot attain to perfection in each, because it is scarcely in his power to take in and comprehend the general theories of them.
vitruvius— Chapter I, Sec. 13
Furthermore, since I have observed that our citizens are distracted with public affairs and private business, I have thought it best to write briefly, so that my readers, whose intervals of leisure are small, may be able to comprehend in a short time.
vitruvius— Introduction, Sec. 3
As with real reading , the ability to comprehend subtlety and complexity comes only with time and a lot of experience . If you don't adequately acquire those skills, moving out into the real world of real people can actually become quite scary .
— w:Jeffrey Kluger,Jeffrey Kluger, in We never talk any more: The problem with text messaging
Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion . To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.
— Albert Einstein, in response to atheist Alfred Kerr in the winter of 1927, who after deriding ideas of God and religion at a dinner party in the home of the publisher Samuel Fischer, had queried him "I hear that you are supposed to be deeply religious" as quoted in The Diary of a Cosmopolitan (1971) by H. G. Kessler, p.157
He that would speak Divine things in a language which living men of to-day can comprehend, must keep up with the researches and discoveries of men who study nature, and put her words into the speech of the present.
— John Heyl Vincent, p. 414. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
It is my meditation all the day, and more than my meat and drink, to know how I shall make the Saints of God comprehend the visions that roll like an overflowing surge before my mind.
— B.H. Roberts, History of the Church 5:362
If you comprehend, it is not God.
augustine of hippo— Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 52, 16.
A God alone can comprehend a God.
Edward Young— Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night LX, line 835.
You shall comprehend all vagrom men.
— Dogberry, scene iii
