A man only understands what is akin to some things already in his mind.

It's taken all my life to understand that it is not necessary to understand everything.

The well fed does not understand the lean.

A man used to riding in a car cannot understand a pedestrian.

No one can develop freely in this world and find a full life without feeling understood by at least one person.

Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy

And what I don't understand I grasp it only when it's too late.

Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor-all men know something of poverty. Not that men are wicked-who is good? Not that men are ignorant-what is truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.

To lay hold of the mean without taking into account the occasion is like grasping one thing only.

What you cannot explain in terms of symbols is lost forever like blind totems and ruins in an old man's face.