David Wong Quotes

To act intelligently in human affairs is only possible if an attempt is made to understand the thoughts, motives, and apprehension of one's opponent so fully that one can see the world through their eyes.

You have to be able to imagine lives that are not yours.

It isn't easy to understand the lives of people different from your own.

If we took the time to learn more about different places and people, perhaps we would have more empathy for each other.

Never underestimate how extraordinarily difficult it is to understand a situation from another person's point of view.

If you aren't just brought up in your tribe but interact with other people either directly or vicariously, through journalism and literature, you see what life is like from other points of view and are less likely to demonize them or dehumanize others and more likely to empathize with them.

The first meaning of 'cognitive' for us is that observations of others are made phenomenologically: i.e., by attempting to take the role of the other, to see things from his or her conscious viewpoint.

I think that's important: to know 'the other,' as a means of coming to understanding.

It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else’s shoes and understand the other’s different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them.

one never knows really how things are with other people, they just do always seem more spirited than oneself somehow.

Maturity is the ability to relate appropriately to other realities than one's own.

I think that if we don't learn to inhabit other people's perspectives, then we're never going to understand why people do what they do.

You think the only people who are people, Are the ones who look and think the way you do, But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, You'll learn the things you never knew you never knew... You can own the Earth and still, All you'll own is earth until You can paint with all the colors of the wind.

To think justly, we must understand what others mean. To know the value of our thoughts, we must try their effect on other minds.

There is in us all that line that prevents us from fully understanding those who are different.

There’s nothing to it. All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else. We’re in no way different ourselves... You show me someone who can’t understand people and I’ll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself.

Many doctors are drawn to this profession (psychology) because they have an innate deficiency of insight into the motives, feelings and thoughts of others, a deficiency they hope to remedy by ingesting masses of data.

Fiction is the only way I know a human being can inhabit the mind of another human being.

It's very humbling to imagine somebody else's really life and their pain ... It's my drug.

I don't always understand other people's motives. I will repeat that for my own benefit, if you don't mind. I don't always understand other people's motives.

I mean I don't think it got me interested in acting. I think it might be what makes it so that I can have the idea of the variety of people in the world, different incomes. That helps. When you're going to play someone it's interesting and nice to see experiences that aren't like yours. But there's always the remarkable similarity of all people.

The best way to understand somebody else is to put yourself in his place.

The mystery in how little we know of other people is no greater than the mystery of how much, Laurel thought.

You think the only people who are people, are the people who look and think like you. But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew you never knew.

Until we take how we see ourselves (and how we see others) into account, we will be unable to understand how others see and feel about themselves and their world. Unaware, we will project our intentions on their behavior and call ourselves objective.