That was for me: I can’t understand anything in general unless I’m carrying along in my mind a specific example and watching it go.

I think I’m able to explain things because understanding wasn't entirely easy for me. Some things that the most brilliant students were able to see instantly I had to work to understand. I can remember what I had to do to figure it out. The very brilliant ones figure it out so fast they never see the mechanics of understanding.

"I'm afraid I'm not very good at understanding things like that." "You say that, but what you really mean is: 'I don't want to understand things like that.' " "It's true," she admitted.

Ask dumb questions.

Someone who is using a lot of fancy words and big concepts probably doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The smartest people can explain things to a child; if you can’t do that, you don’t understand the concept.

Las veces que me comprendo un poco, comprendo menos a los demás.

I don’t know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding; they learn by some other way — by rote, or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!

I would like to understand things better, but I don’t want to understand them perfectly.

If you ever hear yourself saying, 'I think I understand this,' that means you don't.

No procuro saber las respuestas, procuro comprender las preguntas.

Before I begin telling you what I think, I want to establish that I’m a “dumb shit” who doesn’t know much relative to what I need to know. Whatever success I’ve had in life has had more to do with my knowing how to deal with my not knowing than anything I know.

Be patient with the belligerence of the simple-minded. It is not easy to understand that one doesn’t understand

Times when I understand myself a little, I understand others less.

The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.