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Best +100 Misunderstanding Quotes

Misunderstanding Quotes

This post contains some of the best misunderstanding quotes.

Misunderstanding Quotes

1. “A false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act.” – James Thurber

2. “A mistake is to commit a misunderstanding.” -Bob Dylan

3. “A single moment of misunderstanding is so poisonous that it makes us forget the hundreds of lovable moments we’ve spent together within a minute.” –Unknown

4. “A writer who is in a hurry to be understood today or tomorrow runs the danger of being misunderstood the day after tomorrow.” – Johann Georg Hamann

5. “Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.” -Karl Popper

6. “Always say exactly what you feel. People are hurt more by misunderstanding than anything else.” -Louise Fitzhugh

7. “An order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

8. “And it worries me how misunderstandings exist because people would rather have a hole in their heart than to talk their issues out.” -Faraaz Kazi

9. “As soon as we start putting our thoughts into words and sentences, everything gets distorted. Language is just no damn good—I use it because I have to, but I don’t put any trust in it. We never understand each other.” -Marcel Duchamp

10. “As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it” – William James

11. “Between two brains, there will always be misunderstandings and lies caused by parasitic smells, drafts and poor-quality reception.” -Bernard Werber

12. “Beware of the half-truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half.” –Unknown

13. “But as with all geniuses, being ahead of her time meant leading a rather lonely and misunderstood existence.” -Reham Khan

14. “But luxury has never appealed to me, I like simple things, books, being alone, or with somebody who understands.” -Daphne du Maurier

15. “But they were fated to misunderstand each other.” -Rafael Sabatini

16. “Change comes with both fear and some pain. Those two ingredients create mistrust, misunderstanding and misinformation.” – David Mixner

Related: How To Validate Someone’s Feelings Without Agreeing? (+Examples of Validating Statements)

17. “Clear up any misunderstanding before it gets to that point.” – Joel Miller

18. “Distance doesn’t separate people. Misunderstanding does.” –Unknown

19. “Don’t expect her to paraphrase her life for you; she was born to be a story. And if you can’t understand that, then perhaps she’s beyond your reading level.” -Jonny Ox

20. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

21. “Don’t judge my choices without understanding my reasons.” –Unknown

22. “Don’t make assumptions unless you know the whole story. If in doubt, ask the person directly.” -Unknown

23. “Every one interprets everything in terms of his own experience. If you say anything which does not touch a precisely similar spot in another man’s brain, he either misunderstands you, or doesn’t understand you at all.” -Aleister Crowley

24. “Excessive talk leads to misunderstandings.” -Bert McCoy

25. “Fear is a friend who’s misunderstood. But I know the heart of life is good.” – John Mayer

26. “Fights between individuals, as well as governments and nations, invariably result from misunderstandings in the broadest interpretation of this term. Misunderstandings are always caused by the inability of appreciating one another’s point of view.” -Nikola Tesla

27. “Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama.” -Miguel Ruiz

28. “Five minutes of communication can save a year’s worth of turmoil and misunderstanding.” -Joyce Meyer

29. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.” -Albert Einstein

30. “He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.” -Elbert Hubbard

31. “I am only responsible for what I say, not for what you understand.” –Unknown

32. “I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.” – Jeff Bezos

33. “I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you’ve probably misunderstood what I said.” – Alan Greenspan

34. “I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.” – Clarence Darrow

35. “I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

36. “I stopped explaining myself when I realized other people only understand from their level of perception.” –Unknown

37. “I used to think that the worst thing in life was to end up alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel alone.” -Robin Williams

38. “I’ve only met about or people who genuinely understand me. Everyone else just assumes I’m angry, sarcastic, or an asshole.” –Unknown

39. “If a man cannot understand the beauty of life, it is probably because life never understood the beauty in him.” – Criss Jami

Related: How To Respond To Invalidation? Top 7 Things You Can Do

40. “If you knew how rarely people actually understand you, you’d speak less.”-Unknown

41. “In the end, everyone can understand themselves only. You are the only one to which you never have to explain what you mean. Everything else is misunderstanding.” -Renate Dorrestein

42. “In the matters of your mistake you defend it like a lawyer, in the matters of other’s mistake you act like a judge.” – Amit Kalantri

43. “It was not death she feared. It was misunderstanding.”― Zora Neale Hurston

44. “It’s dreadful what little things lead people to misunderstand each other.” – L. M. Montgomery

45. “It’s extraordinary, the amount of misunderstandings there are even between two people who discuss a thing quite often – both of them assuming different things and neither of them discovering the discrepancy.” -Agatha Christie

46. “It’s remarkable the logic we’ll build around a misapprehension.” -Sloane Crosley

47. “It’s very important to choose our words very carefully because miscommunication leads to misunderstanding, which rarely leads to anything good.” -Charles F. Glassman

48. “It’s dreadful what little things lead people to misunderstand each other.”― L.M. Montgomery

49. “Let us not harm ourselves just because you don’t understand me and I don’t understand you! Let us miss misunderstanding, and we shall surely see that understanding!” – Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

50. “Love is a strange and inexplicable mix of comprehension and misunderstanding.” –Unknown

51. “Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death.” – Jack London

52. “Misunderstanding is like a tumor. If you don’t take care of it, it will grow bigger and bigger.” –Unknown

53. “Misunderstanding leads to more misunderstanding, as success leads to more success.” –Girdhar Joshi

54. “Misunderstanding must be nakedly exposed before true understanding can begin to flourish.” – Philip Yancey

55. “Misunderstanding of probability may be the greatest of all impediments to scientific literacy.” – Stephen Jay Gould

56. “Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than malice and wickedness.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

57. “Misunderstandings, if left unsolved, will push people so apart that they might never come together again.” –Unknown

58. “Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, “What else could this mean?” -Shannon L. Alder

Related: How to Respond When Someone Is Being Vulnerable?

59. “Most of the trouble in life comes from misunderstanding.” -L.M. Montgomery

60. “Much of aging comes from a misunderstanding of the effect of comfort.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

61. “Never choose anyone without complete understanding and never lose anyone because of a small misunderstanding.” –Unknown

62. “Never judge a book by its cover. At first glance, even Jesus appeared unimpressive.” – Andrena Sawyer

63. “Never waste your time trying to explain who you are to people who are committed to misunderstanding you.” –Unknown

64. “No adolescent ever wants to be understood, which is why they complain about being misunderstood all the time.” – Stephen Fry

65. “No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.” – Johann Wolfgang

66. “Not judging people is the fastest way to peace.” – Jonathan Jackson

67. “Nothing hurts a good soul and the kind heart more than to live amongst people who can’t understand it.” – Ali lbn Abi Talib

68. “Nothing is easier than for two people in love to misunderstand each other.” -Marty Rubin

69. “One age misunderstands another; and a petty age misunderstands all the others in its own nasty way.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

70. “People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.” – Albert Camus

71. “People will misinterpret you and what you do. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored – the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.” – Austin Kleon

72. “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.” -George Orwell

73. “Please don’t expect me to always be good and kind and loving. There are times when I will be cold and thoughtless and hard to understand.” -Sylvia Plath

74. “Rather than critique people, try admiring God’s creative handiwork.” – Richelle E

Related: Best 10 Books On Validation

75. “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

76. “So many great ideas come out of a misunderstanding.” -Ryan Fleck

77. “Sometimes a person’s silence means “I’m tired of explaining to people who don’t even care to understand.”-Unknown

78. “Sometimes it takes a misunderstanding for you to truly understand where you stand with a person.”-Unknown

79. “Somewhere between love and hate lies confusion, misunderstanding, and desperate hope.” -Shannon L. Alder

80. “Study leads to the retention of concepts, and so the Way is entirely misunderstood.” – Huangbo Xiyun

81. “Texting is a brilliant way to miscommunicate how you feel and misinterpret what other people mean.” –Unknown

82. “The best conversations are with yourself. At least there’s no risk of a misunderstanding.”― Olga Tokarczuk

83. “The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” -Unknown

84. “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky

85. “The fear of being misunderstood is the beginning of mediocrity.” -Ogwo David Emenike

86. “The great enemy of communication, we find, is the illusion of it. We have talked enough; but we have not listened. And by not listening we have failed to concede the immense complexity of our society—and thus the great gaps between ourselves and those with whom we seek understanding.” -William H. Whyte

87. “The greatest tragedy that can befall a poet is to be praised by being misunderstood.” – Pattiann Rogers

88. “The more you understand, the less you are understood by other people.” -Unknown

89. “The only thing for sure we know about communication is that we tend to get it wrong.” -Michael Ray Smith

90. “The same passions in man and woman nonetheless differ in tempo; hence man and woman do not cease misunderstanding one another.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

91. “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw

92. “The text has disappeared under the interpretation.”― Friedrich Nietzsche

Related: 4 Essential Keys To Effective Communication

93. “The words of others are mistakes of our hearing, shipwrecks of our understanding. How confidently we believe OUR meanings of other people’s words.” -Fernando Pessoa

94. “The world only goes round by misunderstanding.” -Charles Baudelaire

95. “The worst distance between two people is misunderstanding.” -Unknown

96. “Then we are too proud to apologize and too stubborn to forgive.” -Mouloud Benzadi

97. “There are some people who could hear you speak a thousand words and still not understand you, and there are others who will understand without you even speaking a word.” –Unknown

98. “There is no communication that is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood.” -Luigina Sgarro

99. “They ended as all great passions do end – by a misunderstanding.” -Honore de Balzac

100. “They have the unique ability to listen to one story and understand another.” -Pandora Poikilos

101. “To be misunderstood can be the writer’s punishment for having disturbed the reader’s peace. The greater the disturbance, the greater the possibility of misunderstanding.” – Anatole Broyard

102. “To pray without expectation is to misunderstand the whole concept of prayer and relationship with God.” – Aiden Wilson Tozer

103. “Understanding is but the sum of misunderstandings.” – Haruki Murakami

104. “Understanding is deeper than knowledge. There are many people who know us, but there are very few who understand us.” -Unknown

105. “Understanding, as we understand it, is misunderstanding.” – Elias Canetti

106. “We are infected by our own misunderstanding of how our own minds work.” – Kevin Kelly

107. “We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.” – Erica Jong

108. “We cannot control the way people interpret our ideas or thoughts, but we can control the words and tones we choose to convey them. Peace is built on understanding, and wars are built on misunderstandings.” -Suzy Kassem

109. “We have misunderstood our confusion when we think there is an answer to it. The confusion is not a result of questions that are too hard, but rather a questioner who is disintegrating.” – Steven Harrison

110. “We’re all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding.” -Rudyard Kipling

111. “What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?” – Søren Kierkegaard

112. “When we generalize and judge people quickly without taking ample time, we’ve chosen a shortcut. It’s superficial of us, and a lack of wisdom.” – Assegid Habtewold

113. “When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.” – Wayne Dyer

114. “With every step of our lives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand.” – G.K. Chesterton

115. “Words are the source of misunderstandings.” – Antoine de Saint

116. “You always risk people misunderstanding you when you say anything.” -Phil Lord

117. “You know people. Most of them don’t hear anything. Those who hear – don’t listen. A few who listen – don’t understand. And those who could understand… they don’t care.” -Bernard Werber

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By Hadiah

Hadiah is a counselor who is passionate about supporting individuals on their journey towards mental well-being. Hadiah not only writes insightful articles on various mental health topics but also creates engaging and practical mental health worksheets.

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