John Searle Quotes

Judgment is contained in the act of trying to understand.

Knowledge, may it be said, is higher than magic and is more to be sought. It is quite possible to see what is happening and yet not know what is forward, for while seeing is believing, it does not follow that either seeing or believing is knowing.

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

There are always two or three or four sides to every story.

It is possible to interpret without observing, but not to observe without interpreting.

If you would judge, understand.

It's very hard to know what wisdom is.

Understanding is a three-edged sword. Your side, my side, and the truth.

You can not apply mathematics as long as words still becloud reality.

I begin to see an object when I cease to understand it.

Yeah. I mean, acknowledging is easy. Something happened or it didn't. But understanding... that's where things get sticky.

Understanding sometimes is not enough to explain something.

What is not intelligible to me is not necessarily unintelligent

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.

I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information.

Human beings understand too much.

There are clear cases in which 'understanding' literally applies and clear cases in which it does not apply; and these two sorts of cases are all I need for this argument.

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.

I'm just trying to understand what's around me as much as anyone else is, really. To draw a bead on a moving target.

A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him.

Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you, life where things aren't.

To understand is to perceive patterns.