Alexander Smith Quotes

Thought must be divided against itself before it can come to any knowledge of itself.

But wise is the man who disdains no character, but with searching glance explores him to the root and cause of all.

Without my attempts in natural science, I should never have learned to know mankind such as it is. In nothing else can we so closely approach pure contemplation and thought, so closely observe the errors of the senses and of the understanding, the weak and strong points of character.

In some mysterious way, once one has gained an insight into human nature, that insight grows from day to day, and he to whom it has given to experience vicariously even one single form of earthly suffering acquires, by reason of this tragic lesson, an understanding of all its forms, even those most foreign to him, and apparently abnormal.

The capacity for inner dialogue is a touchstone for outer objectivity.

It was easier to know a character's point of view than it was to figure out what your point of view was.

To judge human character rightly, a man may sometimes have very small experience, provided he has a very large heart.

I will only take something or agree to do something that I feel like I understand, and inherent in understanding is empathy.

To understand is to possess the thing understood, first by sympathy and then by intelligence.

Shakespeare brings us to know ourselves. Dante, with his dissection of all others, bids us to know one another.

Reflective thinking turns experience into insight.

To understand our own thinking is to understand all thinking.

It is debatable which is causing us more harm - hot-headed ignorance or cold-hearted intellectualism.

A sage steers by the bright light of confusion and doubt.

Whatever sentence will bear to be read twice, we may be sure was thought twice.

Literature may make the reader reexamine some of his or her own conventions, look at himself or herself in a different way, look at others in a different way. This goes way beyond just making statements or manifesting principles.

It is quite impossible to understand the character of a person from one action, however striking that action may be.

Reason is the miner's lamp used in bringing up ore from the mind.

You cannot be wise without some basis of knowledge, but you may easily acquire knowledge and remain bare of wisdom.

There may be men who act without understanding why. I do not. To listen much, pick out the good and follow it; to see much and ponder it: this comes next to understanding.

The answer is inside your head; it's easy to find if you take it logically.

He who knows himself properly can very soon learn to know all other men. It is all reflection.

The most important thing is insight, that is to be - curious - to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does.

One of the goals of analysis is you become your own analyst. You continue the process even if you're not in therapy, whether you continue the process by walking down the street thinking about things or whether you continue the process, as I do, by writing about them.