Misunderstand is to think you have understood someone or something when you have not. Profoundly inspirational misunderstood quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
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Famous Misunderstood Quotes
I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you’ve probably misunderstood what I said. Alan Greenspan
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to morrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to day. Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood. Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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
All I wanted was to live a life where I could be me, and be okay with that. I had no need for material possessions, money or even close friends with me on my journey. I never understood people very well anyway, and they never seemed to understand me very well either. All I wanted was my art and the chance to be the creator of my own world, my own reality. I wanted the open road and new beginnings every day. Charlotte Eriksson
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
When you’re the only sane person, you look like the only insane person. Criss Jami
People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care. Austin Kleon
True rebels hate their own rebellion. They know by experience that it is not a cool and glamorous lifestyle; it takes a courageous fool to say things that have not been said and to do things that have not been done. Criss Jami
I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate. Jeff Bezos
When good people consider you the bad guy, you develop a heart to help the bad ones. You actually understand them. Criss Jami
What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears? Søren Kierkegaard
Friends ask you questions; enemies question you. Criss Jami
Words are the source of misunderstandings. Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Creative people are often found either disagreeable or intimidating by mediocrities. Criss Jami
To pray without expectation is to misunderstand the whole concept of prayer and relationship with God. Aiden Wilson Tozer
Believe me, I know what it’s like to feel all alone the worst kind of loneliness in the world is the isolation that comes from being misunderstood, It can make people lose their grasp on reality. Dan Brown
Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Jack London
Jonathan sighed. The price of being misunderstood, he thought. They call you devil or they call you god. Richard Bach
A false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act. James Thurber
Quiet people always know more than they seem. Although very normal, their inner world is by default fronted mysterious and therefore assumed weird. Never underestimate the social awareness and sense of reality in a quiet person; they are some of the most observant, absorbent persons of all. Criss Jami
One age misunderstands another; and a petty age misunderstands all the others in its own nasty way. Ludwig Wittgenstein
In order to share one’s true brilliance one initially has to risk looking like a fool genius is like a wheel that spins so fast, it at first glance appears to be sitting still. Criss Jami
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. George Bernard Shaw
The point was to learn what it was we feared more: being misunderstood or being betrayed. Adam Levin
We’re all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding. Rudyard Kipling
What people don’t understand about depression is how much it hurts. It’s like your brain is convinced that it’s dying and produces an acid that eats away at you from the inside, until all that’s less is a scary hollowness. Your mind fills with dark thoughts; you become convinced that your friends secretly hate you, you’re worthless, and then there’s no hope. I never got so low as to consider ending it all, but I understand how that can happen to some people. Depression simply hurts too much. Tyler Hamilton
With every step of our lives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand. G.K. Chesterton
When the person you love can’t see your love for them beneath the painful things you say when they reject you, remember this: Love is blind. Shannon L. Alder
Understanding, as we understand it, is misunderstanding. Elias Canetti
Her complexity is a glorious fire that consumes, while her simplicity goes unapproachable. But if one takes time to understand her, there is something beautiful to find, something simple to be loved. But she goes unloved, for being misunderstood. Anthony Liccione
Nothing hurts a good soul and the kind heart more than to live amongst people who can’t understand it. Ali lbn Abi Talib
I’m often painted as the bad guy, and the artistic part of me wants to hand out the brush. Criss Jami
Clear up any misunderstanding before it gets to that point. Joel Miller
The most thoroughly and relentlessly damned, banned, excluded, condemned, forbidden, ostracized, ignored, suppressed, repressed, robbed, brutalized and defamed of all Damned Things is the individual human being. The social engineers, statisticians, psychologists, sociologists, market researchers, landlords, bureaucrats, captains of industry, bankers, governors, commissars, kings and presidents are perpetually forcing this Damned Thing into carefully prepared blueprints and perpetually irritated that the Damned Thing will not fit into the slot assigned it. The theologians call it a sinner and try to reform it. The governor calls it a criminal and tries to punish it. The psychologist calls it a neurotic and tries to cure it. Still, the Damned Thing will not fit into their slots. Robert Anton Wilson
I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood. Clarence Darrow
How is it that some celebrities, whom the average person would believe to have all the popularity a human being could want, still admit to feeling lonely? It is quite naive to assume that popularity is the remedy for loneliness. Loneliness does not necessarily equal physical solitude, it is the inability to be oneself and rightfully represented as oneself. Criss Jami
An order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood. Napoleon Bonaparte
Even if there are instances in which it can be mistook by onlookers, never fool yourself into using misunderstood genius as an excuse to be a fool. Criss Jami
No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Nothing in this world is complicated, only misunderstood. Chloe Gong
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
Communication is the one class no one graduates from. Even the wisest man’s words will be misinterpreted by a fool. Shannon L. Alder
The world only goes round by misunderstanding. Charles Baudelaire
What a fool she was ever to have imagined that there might be some place in the world where she could sink to the earth with the knowledge that there were people round her who understood, who perhaps even admired and loved her! She was fated to carry loneliness about with her as a leper carries his scabs. No one can do anything for me no one can do anything against me. François Mauriac
We are infected by our own misunderstanding of how our own minds work. Kevin Kelly
At that time, I well remember whatever could excite certain accidents of the weather, for instance, were almost dreaded by me, because they woke the being I was always lulling, and stirred up a craving cry I could not satisfy. One night a thunder storm broke; a sort of hurricane shook us in our beds the Catholics rose in panic and prayed to their saints. As for me, the tempest took hold of me with tyranny I was roughly roused and obliged to live. I got up and dressed myself, and creeping outside the basement close by my bed, sat on its ledge, with my feet on the roof of a lower adjoining building. It was wet, it was wild, it was pitch dark. Within the dormitory they gathered round the night lamp in consternation, praying loud. I could not go in too resistless was the delight of staying with the wild hour, black and full of thunder, pealing out such an ode as language never delivered to man too terribly glorious, the spectacle of clouds, split and pierced by white and blinding bolts. Charlotte Brontë
Understanding is but the sum of misunderstandings. Haruki Murakami
Until you have stood in another woman’s stilettos, you will never begin to know the year of pain she felt breaking them in. Shannon L. Alder
Misunderstanding must be nakedly exposed before true understanding can begin to flourish. Philip Yancey
Easily mistaken, it is not about a love for adversity, it is about knowing a strength and a faith so great that adversity, in all its adverse manifestations, hardly even exists. Criss Jami
The same passions in man and woman nonetheless differ in tempo; hence man and woman do not cease misunderstanding one another. Friedrich Nietzsche
I prefer to be on the side of losers, the misunderstood or lonely people rather than writing about the strong and powerful. Núria Añó
It’s dreadful what little things lead people to misunderstand each other. L. M. Montgomery
Christianity, like genius, is one of the hardest concepts to forgive. We hear what we want to hear and accept what we want to accept, for the most part, simply because there is nothing more offensive than feeling like you have to re evaluate your own train of thought and purpose in life. You have to die to an extent in your hunger for faith, for wisdom, and quite frankly, most people aren’t ready to die. Criss Jami
Much of aging comes from a misunderstanding of the effect of comfort. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
You know it never ceases to amaze me how people twist your words.I used to et it bother me that I was so misunderstood, but now I realise, I can tell a lot about people by what they choose to see in me. Karen McNair Gibbs
Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than malice and wickedness. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
After all, there was something rather pleasant in knowing that you were misunderstood. It made you feel different from everyone else. Henry Handel Richardson
Change comes with both fear and some pain. Those two ingredients create mistrust, misunderstanding and misinformation. David Mixner
What’s simple is that everything good comes from God, and everything bad comes from man. Where it gets complicated is that everything seemingly good but ultimately bad comes from man, and everything seemingly bad but ultimately good comes from God. Criss Jami
Misunderstanding leads to more misunderstanding, as success leads to more success. Girdhar Joshi
With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to day. Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood. Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Rather than critique people, try admiring God’s creative handiwork. Richelle E. Goodrich
I’m just a soul whose intentions are good, he sang to the crabs and the spiders and the palmetto beetles and the lizards and the night. Oh lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood. Neil Gaiman
Not judging people is the fastest way to peace. Jonathan Jackson
We would not say very much in company if we realized how often we misunderstand what others say. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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
Shyness can be interpreted as a kind of aggression. Richard Ayoade
Never judge a book by its cover. At first glance, even Jesus appeared unimpressive. Andrena Sawyer
Truth is born into this world only with pangs and tribulations, and every fresh truth is received unwillingly. Alfred Russel Wallace
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
When you’re emotionally weak, but psychically smiling. When you want to be loved but can’t be loved. When you try to feel special, but realize you’re just one out of many. When you cry about every little obstacle and disappointment. But hey I’m fine. Maite
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson
They keep texting you wyd and wya instead of how you feeling what’s on your mind and you wonder why you feel misunderstood. Jill Telford
We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate. Erica Jong
He knows what it’s like to be misunderstood. No one not even His closest friends understood Him. Brant Hansen
People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves. Albert Camus
My greatest fear in that moment was that my silence might be misunderstood as disinterest, disregard, or disrespect that my anxiety would be perceived as apathy. Sean Norris
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. Fyodor Dostoevsky
The thing about being misunderstood is that it diminishes your enjoyment of life. Bob Dylan
We are all different. Don’t judge, understand instead. Roy T. Bennett
The work of a genius must be opposite himself in that it must retain some capacity of being understood. Criss Jami
The older I get, the more I would rather sit alone, in silence, than with people who judge the way I live. Kristen Butler
Extremely complex individuals are not here to be understood. They are here to be felt on a profound level. Whether that’s through their existence or their creations. That is something that they will have to come to terms with in their lifetime. Robin S. Baker
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers. Voltaire
Massive growth doesn’t come form lateral moves. It comes from taking a stand for something great, for your best self, for being willing to be misunderstood, and even a willingness to be lonely for a while. Doug Wood
When good people consider you the bad guy, you develop a heart to help the bad ones. You actually understand them. Criss Jami
Life did not impress me and I did not impress life. We were two companions who’d been forced together, and we tried to get a long or coexist but communication failed and I was misunderstood, and misunderstood life; until I found art. Or art found me, which it rather feels like because I never sought it, never wished for it, it just showed up one night when I needed it the most and it communicated in a way I finally understood. It spoke to me, sang to me, danced for me, and for the first time I understood and could make myself understood, and that’s when it all changed. Charlotte Eriksson
People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me. Søren Kierkegaard
Kindness is a language more often misunderstood than taken at face value. Joyce Rachelle
Nowadays, saying what you really think can be a serious error since one risks being misunderstood. Oscar Wilde
But now more often the old stale hopeless weariness overcame him: the black sickness which almost no one else, certainly not his nearest dearest friends, could understand at all. The idea of giving up the world, which had given him for a time so much life energy, appeared now as a sort of fake suicide, a ghastly play image of his death. This fatal falseness of heart was what perhaps Father Damien, on further acquaintance, had now seen in him. Iris Murdoch
I think I get misinterpreted and misunderstood a lot. Macy Gray
I’ve learned my lesson. I know nothing. Ljupka Cvetanova
You have to put up with the risk of being misunderstood if you are going to try to communicate. Edie Sedgwick
If all I cared about was me, I could make a million. And that’s what they will never understand. Edie Sedgwick
Being misunderstood by someone is vexation. Being misunderstood by everyone is tragedy. Liu Shahe
