Quotes about Understanding

Some writers have excellent "control"; they know exactly what they want to convey, and they convey it precisely and accurately

you have to discover the meaning of a word you do not understand by using the meanings of all the other words in the context that you do understand.

your primary obligation is not to become competent in the subject matter but instead to understand the problem.

we want to know not merely what his propositions are, but also why he thinks we should be persuaded to accept them.

RULE 5. FIND THE IMPORTANT WORDS AND COME TO TERMS. The sixth rule can be expressed thus: RULE 6. MARK THE MOST IMPORTANT SENTENCES IN A BOOK AND DISCOVER THE PROPOSITIONS THEY CONTAIN. The seventh rule is this: RULE 7. LOCATE OR CONSTRUCT THE BASIC ARGUMENTS IN THE BOOK BY FINDING THEM IN THE CONNECTION OF SENTENCES.

Francis Bacon once remarked that "some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." Reading a book analytically is chewing and digesting it.

RULE 10, and it can be expressed thus: WHEN YOU DISAGREE, DO SO REASONABLY, AND NOT DISPUTATIOUSLY OR CONTENTIOUSLY.

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

Read it quickly and with total immersion.

Let the characters into your mind and heart; suspend your disbelief, if such it is, about the events. Do not disapprove of something a character does before you understand why he does it—if then. Try as hard as you can to live in his world, not in yours; there, the things he does may be quite understandable. And do not judge the world as a whole until you are sure that you have "lived" in it to the extent of your ability.

Unless you read it quickly you will fail to see the unity of the story. Unless you read intensely you will fail to see the details.

Ask questions while you read—questions that you yourself must try to answer in the course of reading.