Understanding requires words. Some things cannot be reduced to words. There are things that can only be experienced wordlessly... The act of saying that things exist that cannot be described in words shakes a universe where words are supreme.

Do actions agree with words? There's your measure of reliability. Never confine yourself to the words.

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel... he must lay the best coffee hearth to attract the finest men... a good ruler has to learn his world's language... it's different for every world... the language of the rocks and growing things... the language you don't hear just with your ears... the Mystery of Life... not a problem to solve, but a reality to experience...

Understanding must move with the flow of the process.

She's not real thrilled about me being away so long, but she's very understanding.

What is it like to hear the words you're dumb, you're stupid? That comes to be their understanding of themselves.