Top Ten Quotes: How to Know a Person
There are books meant to be listened to, and there are books meant to be savored. David Brooks’ How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen falls into the latter camp for me. I mentioned in an earlier post that I started (and finished, because I’m not a psychopath) the audio version, but knew just a chapter in that I needed to read it, underline it, and engage with it.
I don’t care what your profession or personal bent: if you’re a pastor or politician, a full-time mom or a part-time student, this book drips with wisdom when it comes to being relational in our increasingly anti-relational society. It’s part of this year’s recommended summer reading list for a reason…pick it up today.
Here are my top ten favorite quotes:
- Some days it seems like we have intentionally built a society that gives people little guidance on how to perform the most important activities of life. As a result, a lot of us are lonely and lack deep friendships.
- Our social skills are currently inadequate to the pluralistic societies we are living in.
- The number one reason people don’t see others is that they are too self-centered to try.
- It’s disturbingly easy to be ignorant of the person right next to you.
- Every person I meet is fascinating on some topic. If I approach you in this respectful way, I’ll know that you are not a puzzle that can be solved but a mystery that can never be gotten to the bottom of.
- People don’t see the world with their eyes; they see it with their entire life.
- If a person is a point of view, then to know them well you have to ask them how they see things. And it doesn’t work to try to imagine what’s going on in their head. You have to ask them. You have to have a conversation.
- Sometimes a broad, dumb question is better than a smart question, especially one meant to display how well-informed you are.
- The thing we need most is relationships. The thing we seem to suck at most is relationships.
- The essence of evil is the tendency to obliterate the humanity of another.
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