“Three-fourths of the miseries and misunderstandings in the world will disappear if we step into the shoes of our adversaries and understand their standpoint.”
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About this quote
Most friction between people comes less from real opposition than from never having grasped why the other side sees things as it does. A genuine effort to understand an opponent's reasoning tends to shrink the dispute, because much of the heat was misunderstanding all along.
When to use it
- A mediator asking each coworker in a feud to explain the other's position first.
- A parent pausing to see a curfew fight from their teenager's point of view.
- A support agent calming a furious customer by naming what actually frustrated them.