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eef277b The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be. science perspective Douglas Adams
eef6e84 "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." -- perspective space Carl Sagan
8eff89b We're so self-important. So arrogant. Everybody's going to save something now. Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save the snails. And the supreme arrogance? Save the planet! Are these people kidding? Save the planet? We don't even know how to take care of ourselves; we haven't learned how to care for one another. We're gonna save the fuckin' planet? . . . And, by the way, there's nothing wrong with the planet in the first place. The planet is fine. The people are fucked! Compared with the people, the planet is doin' great. It's been here over four billion years . . . The planet isn't goin' anywhere, folks. We are! We're goin' away. Pack your shit, we're goin' away. And we won't leave much of a trace. Thank God for that. Nothing left. Maybe a little Styrofoam. The planet will be here, and we'll be gone. Another failed mutation; another closed-end biological mistake. pale-blue-dot humanity inspirational extinction perspective George Carlin
b8bf2a4 It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters, positive-living money kindness spirit compassion self-awareness spirituality happiness life love philosophy wisdom inspirational purposeful-living happy-life attention oneness purpose-in-life positive-attitude purpose-of-life meaning-of-life self-discovery perspective meditation purpose revelation peace respect Amit Ray
b2f928b On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty. silence rain perspective white-noise Mark Haddon
f03a744 Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. earth humour unfashionable watches primitive cosmology galaxy digital perspective Douglas Adams
3d83f3a It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view. open-mindedness perspective George Eliot
6b12ffe It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say 'It's as plain as the nose on your face.' But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you? philosophers perspective Isaac Asimov
3e54ae9 What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. ... In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportmen the cover for the game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them. artists sportsmen seeing inspirational farmer botanists fossils perspective geologists sight flowers game John Lubbock
9c5dbfd We often need to lose sight of our priorities in order to see them. self-discovery perspective revelation John Irving
74cf893 If someone does not want me it is not the end of the world. But if I do not want me, the world is nothing but endings. lessons thoughts life love inspirational perspective self Nayyirah Waheed
ab81fec "The alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus. The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus. But this was not how the author of the book ended the story. He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears. 'Why do you weep?' the goddesses asked. 'I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied. 'Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,' they said, 'for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand.' 'But... was Narcissus beautiful?' the lake asked. 'Who better than you to know that?' the goddesses asked in wonder. 'After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!' The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said: 'I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.' 'What a lovely story,' the alchemist thought." male-beauty perspective narcissus vanity Paulo Coelho
1249186 Fairy Tales always have a happy ending.' That depends... on whether you are Rumpelstiltskin or the Queen. perspective Jane Yolen
a2062be People live their lives bound by what they accept as correct and true. That's how they define Reality. But what does it mean to be "correct" or "true"? Merely vague concepts... Their Reality may all be a mirage. Can we consider them to simply be living in their own world, shaped by their beliefs? life inspirational perspective Masashi Kishimoto
41ada66 The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun. humor hunting perspective shooting P.G. Wodehouse
9828ab7 I know that the molecules in my body are traceable to phenomena in the cosmos. That makes me want to grab people on the street and say: 'Have you HEARD THIS? science philosophy inspirational connectedness perspective knowledge Neil deGrasse Tyson
50487ec All stories are true. But some of them never happened. perspective stories James A. Owen
7c09993 "Would it be possible for me to see something from up there?" asked Milo politely. "You could," said Alec, "but only if you try very hard to look at things as an adult does." Milo tried as hard as he could, and, as he did, his feet floated slowly off the ground until he was standing in the air next to Alex Bings. He looked around very quickly and, an instant later, crashed back down to the earth again. "Interesting, wasn't it?" asked Alex. "Yes, it was," agreed Milo, rubbing his head and dusting himself off, "but I think I'll continue to see things as a child. It's not so far to fall." perspective childhood Norton Juster
40968af Child, you have to learn to see things in the right proportions. Learn to see great things great and small things small. inspirational proportion perspective Corrie Ten Boom
a062275 You had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself strength life perspective Ken Kesey
67e5353 When it rains it pours. Maybe the art of life is to convert tough times to great experiences: we can choose to hate the rain or dance in it. life inspirational perspective Joan Marques
e545c22 "Instead of God for my two strong legs that are able to run and jump and climb, I whined about my "thunder thighs" and "thick" ankles. Instead of rejoicing that I have two capable arms that can lift and carry and balance my body, I complained about the flab that hung beneath them. I have been totally and unbelievably ungrateful for everything. Like a completely spoiled brat, I took my healthy body for granted. I criticized it and despised it. With crystal clarity, I know that I do deserve the good health that God has mysteriously blessed me with. Not only have I been unappreciative of my body and its amazing working parts, I tortured it by overexercising, and I put my entire health at serious risk by starving myself. What on earth was wrong with me? As I watch these kids with their less-than-perfect bodies, I feel so thoroughly ashamed of myself. I mean, how could I have been so stupid and shallow and self-centered?" melody-carlson thankfulness perspective Melody Carlson
2cf244a Such is the influence which the condition of our own thoughts, exercises, even over the appearance of external objects. Men who look on nature, and their fellow-men, and cry that all is dark and gloomy, are in the right; but the sombre colours are reflections from their own jaundiced eyes and hearts. The real hues are delicate, and need a clearer vision. thoughts darkness optimism subconscious perspective perception pessimism human-nature Charles Dickens
6d202f2 There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human's mind against the Enemy. He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them. faith perspective focus fears suspense C.S. Lewis
eb18d70 If peace comes from seeing the whole, then misery stems from a loss of perspective. We begin so aware and grateful. The sun somehow hangs there in the sky. The little bird sings. The miracle of life just happens. Then we stub our toe, and in that moment of pain, the whole world is reduced to our poor little toe. Now, for a day or two, it is difficult to walk. With every step, we are reminded of our poor little toe. Our vigilance becomes: Which defines our day--the pinch we feel in walking on a bruised toe, or the miracle still happening? It is the giving over to smallness that opens us to misery. In truth, we begin taking nothing for granted, grateful that we have enough to eat, that we are well enough to eat. But somehow, through the living of our days, our focus narrows like a camera that shutters down, cropping out the horizon, and one day we're miffed at a diner because the eggs are runny or the hash isn't seasoned just the way we like. When we narrow our focus, the problem seems everything. We forget when we were lonely, dreaming of a partner. We forget first beholding the beauty of another. We forget the comfort of first being seen and held and heard. When our view shuts down, we're up in the night annoyed by the way our lover pulls the covers or leaves the dishes in the sink without soaking them first. In actuality, misery is a moment of suffering allowed to become everything. So, when feeling miserable, we must look wider than what hurts. When feeling a splinter, we must, while trying to remove it, remember there is a body that is not splinter, and a spirit that is not splinter, and a world that is not splinter. enlightenment mark-nepo joy happiness perspective misery Mark Nepo
d5f009f I tried to put things in perspective but sometimes you're just too close to it. distance perspective Cormac McCarthy
702213b "It's not a problem. There are people out there with much worse problems than mine."-Cynthia "Doesn't make yours any more fun to bear."-Liza "No. But it does help with the self-pity."- Cynthia" personal-problems perspective pity self-help Jennifer Crusie
a01e788 I'm a scientist and I know what constitutes proof. But the reason I call myself by my childhood name is to remind myself that a scientist must also be absolutely like a child. If he sees a thing, he must say that he sees it, whether it was what he thought he was going to see or not. See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that. wonko-the-sane interpretation perspective Douglas Adams
153ce58 Those at too great a distance may, I am well are, mistake ignorance for perspective. education informed rational debate perspective ignorance knowledge Carl Sagan
4103666 "Silverfish looked down. "Oh. Are you a dwarf?" Cuddy gave him a blank stare. "Are you a giant?" He said. "Me? Of course not!" "Ah. Then I must be a dwarf, yes." dwarf perspective perception Terry Pratchett
4d73647 Remember where you came from, where you're going, and why you created the mess you got yourself into in the first place. You're going to die a horrible death, remember. It's all good training, and you'll enjoy it more if you keep the facts in mind. Take your dying with some seriousness, however. Laughing on the way to your execution is not generally understood by less-advanced life-forms, and they'll call you crazy. life perspective Richard Bach
b996fcd With the moon walk, the religious myth that sustained these notions could no longer be held. With our view of earthrise, we could see that the earth and the heavens were no longer divided but that the earth is in the heavens. (105) myth heaven religion moon perspective Joseph Campbell
76d200d The needs of a society determine its ethics, and in the Black American ghettos the hero is that man who is offered only the crumbs from his country's table but by ingenuity and courage is able to take for himself a Lucullan feast. Hence the janitor who lives in one room but sports a robin's-egg-blue Cadillac is not laughed at but admired, and the domestic who buys forty-dollar shoes is not criticized but is appreciated. We know that they have put to use their full mental and physical powers. Each single gain feeds into the gains of the body collective. racism i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings maya-angelou perspective Maya Angelou
4869f8d But to look back from the stony plain along the road which led one to that place is not at all the same thing as walking on the road; the perspective to say the very least, changes only with the journey; only when the road has, all abruptly and treacherously, and with an absoluteness that permits no argument, turned or dropped or risen is one able to see all that one could not have seen from any other place. maturity perspective growth James Baldwin
2f3ba48 It's one of those things a person has to do; sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly. perspective Edward Albee
35165c9 I have in this War a burning private grudge--which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light. aryans wwii demon perspective hitler propaganda J.R.R. Tolkien
1dc5870 Mountains, according to the angle of view, the season, the time of day, the beholder's frame of mind, or any one thing, can effectively change their appearance. Thus, it is essential to recognize that we can never know more than one side, one small aspect of a mountain. mountains perspective Haruki Murakami
1b9e543 Outside has everything. Whenever I think of a thing now like skis or fireworks or islands or elevators or yo-yos, I have to remember they're real, they're actually happening in Outside all together. It makes my head tired. And people too, firefighters teachers burglars babies saints soccer players and all sorts, they're all really in Outside. I'm not there, though, me and Ma, we're the only ones not there. Are we still real? reality outside perspective Emma Donoghue
e143f00 Oh, why does compassion weaken us?' It doesn't, really ... Somewhere where it all balances out - don't the philosophers have a name for it, the perfect place, the place where the answers live? - if we could go there, you could see it doesn't. It only looks, a little bit, like it does, from here, like an ant at the foot of an oak tree. He doesn't have a clue that it's a tree; it's the beginning of the wall round the world, to him. world philosophy perspective Robin McKinley
9e1959b So winners, Hae-Joo proposed, are the real losers because they learn nothing? What, then, are losers? Winners? wisdom loser winner postmodern improvement learning-from-mistakes perspective postmodernism David Mitchell
8378181 Indeed, I find that distance lends perspective and I often write better of a place when I am some distance from it. One can be so overwhelmed by the forest as to miss seeing the trees. seeing perspective Louis L'Amour
f2b23a7 Her own misery filled her heart--there was no room in it for other people's sorrow. self-pity perspective George Eliot
d99debc Beauty's not only skin deep. Just because a person is beautiful doesn't mean there's no soul beneath. Doesn't mean that person hasn't suffered like everyone else, doesn't mean they don't hope to still be a good human being in an awful world. (Gabriel) true life perspective judgement Rachel Cohn
2cf57c2 Things that are falling apart encourage me: whatever else, I'm in better shape than they are. perspective Margaret Atwood
72f3e1c This place aint the same. It never will be. Maybe we've all got a little crazy. I guess if everbody went crazy together nobody would notice, what do you think? perspective Cormac McCarthy
4b78377 It looks a lot better from up here than it does down there, dont it? Yes. It does. There's a lot of things look better at a distance. Yeah? I think so. I guess there are. The life you've lived, for one. Yeah. Maybe what of it you aint lived yet, too. perspective Cormac McCarthy
43f5a3f Was it the case that colours dimmed as the eye grew elderly? Or was it rather that in youth your excitement about the world transferred itself onto everything you saw and made it brighter? youth colour ageing perspective excitement Julian Barnes
b18a399 It's harder to pick and choose when you're dead. It's like a photograph, you know. It doesn't matter as much. death-and-dying death truth self-censorship significance perspective etiquette Neil Gaiman
3b9e28f You are a fool to speak of last great battles, Sam, for the last great battle is always the next one. kali perspective battle Roger Zelazny
e43e3fd What do you mean, 'Angle of Repose?' she asked me when I dreamed we were talking about Grandmother's life, and I said it was the angle at which a man or woman finally lies down. I suppose it is; and yet ... I thought when I began, and still think, that there was another angle in all those years when she was growing old and older and very old, and Grandfather was matching her year for year, a separate line that did not intersect with hers. They were vertical people, they lived by pride, and it is only by the ocular illusion of perspective that they can be said to have met. But he had not been dead two months when she lay down and died too, and that may indicate that at that absolute vanishing point they did intersect. They had intersected for years, for more than he especially would ever admit. marriage love intersection life-lines resignation married-life parallels perspective matrimony separation pride Wallace Stegner
2129844 It is well known that stone can think, because the whole of electronics is based on that fact, but in some universes men spend ages looking for other intelligences in the sky without once looking under their feet. That is because they've got the time-span all wrong. From stone's point of view the universe is hardly created and mountain ranges are bouncing up and down like organ-stops while continents zip backward and forward in general high spirits, crashing into each other from the sheer joy of momentum and getting their rocks off. It is going to be quite some time before stone notices its disfiguring skin disease and starts to scratch, which is just as well. time humor perspective Terry Pratchett
ef0f907 Being put in our place by something larger, older, greater than ourselves is not a humiliation; it should be accepted as a relief from our insanely hopeful ambitions for our lives. hopes nature life humiliation perspective Alain de Botton
d4e40b5 He saw on the paper a picture of a man, white-skinned, who hung upon a crosspiece of wood. The man was without clothes except for a bit about his loins, and to all appearences he was dead, since his head drooped upon his shoulder and his eyes were closed above his bearded lips. Wang Lung looked at the pictured man in horror and with increasing interest. christianity crucifix perspective Pearl S. Buck
192e277 Believe that a further shore is reachable from here. inspiration perspective Seamus Heaney
b32ad0f The way you SEE your life SHAPES your life. How you define life determines your destiny. Your perspective will influence how you invest your time, spend your money, use your talents, and value your relationships. life perspective Rick Warren
8dc08ec People meet in the course of life, they talk together, they discuss, they quarrel, without realizing that they're talking to one another across a distance, each from an observation post standing in a different place in time. life perspective Milan Kundera
8e2b746 He [Wordsworth] invited his readers to abandon their usual perspective and to consider for a time how the world might look through other eyes, to shuttle between the human and the natural perspective. Why might this be interesting, or even inspiring? Perhaps because unhappiness can stem from only having one perspective to play with. writing philosophy perspective Alain de Botton
451598b Can anything be imagined so ridiculous, that this miserable and wretched creature [man], who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not power to know the least part, much less to command the whole? mankind world perspective hubris mastery Michel de Montaigne
523e99d And then she began to cry, and when I asked her why she was doing that, she said it was because I was to have a happy ending, and it was just like a book; and I wondered what books she'd been reading. life perspective happy-endings Margaret Atwood
f90e198 When tradition is thought to state the way things really are, it becomes the director and judge of our lives; we are, in effect, imprisoned by it. On the other hand, tradition can be understood as a pointer to that which is beyond tradition: the sacred. Then it functions not as a prison but as a lens. faith perspective tradition Marcus J. Borg
1dc7e20 For several years, while I searched for, found, and studied black women writers, I deliberately shut O'Connor out, feeling almost ashamed that she had reached me first. And yet, even when I no longer read her, I missed her, and realized that though the rest of America might not mind, having endured it so long, I would never be satisfied with a segregated literature. I would have to read Zora Hurston and Flannery O'Connor, Nella Larsen and Carson McCullers, Jean Toomer and William Faulkner, before I could begin to feel well read at all. reading well-read segregation perspective Alice Walker
bff02b2 What you remembered? Probably. More or less. Different people remember things differently, and you'll not get any two people to remember anything the same, whether they were there or not. You stand two of you lot next to each other, and you could be continents away for all it means anything. perspective Neil Gaiman
bba291f Because that world's gone. The world where people walked around whistling that music. All the madrigal singers in the world can't make that other one real again. It's like dinosaurs. We can put them back together perfectly, bone for bone, but we don't know what they smelled like, what kind of sounds they made, or how big they really looked standing in the grass under all those fossil fern trees. Even the sunlight must have been different, and the wind. What can bones tell you about a kind of wind that doesn't blow anymore? peter-beagle perspective Peter S. Beagle
b2a30f9 Why then should witless man so much misweene That nothing is but that which he hath seene? perspective perception Edmund Spenser
9412ae0 ...otherwise, one of you, most likely the man, would go wandering off on a trajectory of his own, taking his addictive body with him and leaving you with bad withdrawal, which you could counteract by exercise. If you didn't work it out it was because one of you had the wrong attitude. Everything that went on in your life was thought to be due to some positive or negative power emanating from inside your head. perspective Margaret Atwood
a8dae29 We spread our sleeping bags on the snow and crawled inside. The vantage point was dizzying. It was impossible to tell whether the comet was above us or we were above the comet; we were all falling through space, missing the stars by inches. scale perspective space Anne Fadiman
0d611cb When strangers meet, great allowances should be made for differences in custom and training. openness perspective manners Frank Herbert
5e0f24e She seemed always to have seen him through a blur - first of sleepiness, then of distance and indifference - and now the fog had thickened till he was almost indistinguishable. indifference perspective Edith Wharton
e658818 What is always needed in the appreciation of art, or life, is the larger perspective. Connections made, or at least attempted, where none existed before, the straining to encompass in one's glance at the varied world the common thread, the unifying theme through immense diversity, a fearlessness of growth, of search, of looking, that enlarges the private and the public world. And yet, in our particular society, it is the narrowed and narrowing view of life that often wins existence courage life narrow-mindedness open-mindedness perspective growth society Alice Walker
b33e78f We are not free to love God insofar as we are enslaved to creatures. And we all are. We are addicted to whatever we cannot part with that is less than God, our true good. And that includes ourselves--especially ourselves and our own will. So we must renounce this too, this especially. God's world is not the problem; our attitude is. God does not want us to renounce the unspeakably beautiful world he gave us as creation, as gift, as it really is. He wants us to renounce it as creator, as our god, as it really is not. This wonderful world is our God-given house to live in and to live the love of God in. But God's bride must learn not to love her house as if it were her husband. faith god perspective Peter Kreeft
1aa18cc the greater number of a man's errors come before him disguised under the specious form of necessity; then, after error has been committed in a moment of excitement, of delirium, or of fear, we see that we might have avoided and escaped it. wisdom perspective mistakes Alexandre Dumas
c81b296 Unfortunately in this world of ours, each person views things through a certain medium, which prevents his seeing them in the same light as others... view worldview perspective Alexandre Dumas
52501b6 The whole underneath of Paris was an ant nest, Metro tunnels, sewer shafts, catacombs, mines, cemeteries. She'd been down in the city of bones where skulls and femurs rose in yellowing walls. Right down there, win the square before them. through a dinky little entrance, were the Roman ruins like honeycomb. The trains went under the river. There were tunnels people had forgotten about. It was a wonder Paris stood up at all. The bit you saw was only half of it. Her skin burned, thinking of it. The Hunchback knew. Up here in the tower of Notre Dame he saw how it was. Now and then, with the bells rattling his bones, he saw it like God saw it -- inside, outside, above and under -- just for a moment. The rest of the time he went back to hurting and waiting like Scully out there crying in the wind. hunchback-of-notre-dame tour view perspective hidden paris Tim Winton
e639d83 It's a funny thing about Americans, we love to bitch about paying too much for the things we really need and are really a bargain, like gas and postage stamps, but we willingly shell out outrageous amounts for unnecessary crap like gourmet coffee and soap to make your crotch smell good. Two dollars a gallon to go ten miles is too much, but five to the parking valet to go ten feet is okay. gas-prices perspective Bill Maher
e2c7154 Is it not late? A late time to be living? Are not our generations the crucial ones? For we have changed the world. Are not our heightened times the important ones? For we have nuclear bombs. Are we not especially significant because our century is? - our century and its unique Holocaust, its refugee populations, its serial totalitarian exterminations; our century and its antibiotics, silicon chips, men on the moon, and spliced genes? No, we are not and it is not. These times of ours are ordinary times, a slice of life like any other. Who can bear to hear this, or who will consider it?... Take away the bomb threat and what are we? Ordinary beads on a never-ending string. Our time is a routine twist of an improbable yarn...There must be something heroic about our time, something that lifts it above all those other times. Plague? Funny weather? Dire things are happening... Why are we watching the news, reading the news, keeping up with the news? Only to enforce our fancy - probably a necessary lie - that these are crucial times, and we are in on them. Newly revealed, and we are in the know: crazy people, bunches of them. New diseases, shifts in power, floods! Can the news from dynastic Egypt have been any different? reality perspective Annie Dillard
84684f5 "The larger question is, as virologist Jonas Salk once asked, "Are we being good ancestors?" perspective legacy Steven Johnson
a30a5a0 He realized suddenly that it was one thing to see the past occupying the present, but the true test of prescience was to see the past in the future. Things persisted in not being what they seemed. discernment perspective prophecy Frank Herbert
b8b06c0 The present is never tidy, or certain, or reasonable, and those who try to make it so once it becomes the past succeed only in making it seem implausible. writing perspective storytelling William Manchester
aa556c7 "The study of the past helps us to appreciate that the ideas and values of our own age are just as provisional and transient as those of bygone ages. The intelligent and reflective engagement with the thought of a bygone era ultimately subverts any notion of "chronological snobbery". Reading texts from the past makes it clear that what we now term "the past" was once "the present", which proudly yet falsely regarded itself as having found the right intellectual answers and moral values that had eluded its predecessors." perspective timelessness Alister E. McGrath
c6c55db The circularity of influence was like a trail of dominoes falling in four dimensions. Each time one slapped another and fell to the ground, from a different vantage point it appeared knocked upright, ready to be slapped and fall again. Everything was not merely relative, it was--how to put it? --relevant. Representational. Revealing. Referential and reverential both. perspective perception Gregory Maguire
a9dcf9b Describing his experience with the sting of an extremely toxic jellyfish, he did something you don't often see a scientist do: he shivered. emotion testimony perspective vulnerability sin Bill Bryson
f7cb590 The Greeks were realists. They saw the beauty of common things and were content with it. perspective perception Edith Hamilton
a4c511e Nothing can be appreciated in a vacuum. perspective Chuck Klosterman
b83188c When we encounter personal problems, those things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan. thought-life perspective Frank Herbert
afc3192 It would mark the end of a year that he might look back on as hands, a pivot between two lines. Or not: maybe enough time, would pass that eventually he would look back on his life, all of it, as a series of events both logical and continuous. time perspective Nicole Krauss
2c753fe Oh, the last time how clearly you see everything; as though a magnifying light had been turned on it. And you grieve because you hadn't held it tighter when you had it every day. loss perspective Betty Smith
c344fd2 Logically, I understand that it wasn't Edward's fault my family fell apart after he left. But when you're eleven years old, you don't give a flip about logic. You just really miss holding your big brother's hand. families perspective logic Jodi Picoult
3973dfc Things don't always look as they seem. Some stars, for example, look like bright pinholes, but when you get them pegged under a microscope you find you're looking at a globular cluster--a million stars that, to us, presents as a single entity. On a less dramatic note there are triples, like Alpha Centauri, which up close turns out to be a double star and a red dwarf in close proximity. There's an indigenous tribe in Africa that tells of life coming from the second star in Alpha Centauri, the one no one can see without a high-powered observatory telescope. come to think of it, the Greeks, the Aboriginals, and the Plains Indians all lived continents apart and all, independently, looked at the same septuplet knot of the Pleiades and believed them to be seven young girls running away from something that threatened to hurt them. Make of it what you will. stars alpha-centauri brian-fitzgerald globular-cluster plains-indians pleiades coincidence greeks design perspective Jodi Picoult
f989f09 There are those among us who have erred, deeply and significantly. Who have wounded the world and broken themselves. The worst of them lose themselves in their errors. The best of them crawl back, one foot at a time, and seek to amend their breaches. That is the way of the brave. perseverance life-lessons life gabriel-keene chloe-neill perspective life-lesson Chloe Neill
b32f7f1 If you knew how the journey was going to end, you could afford to be patient along the path. faith patients perspective Joseph J. Ellis
472d1dd He had no ideal world of dead heroes; he knew little of the life of men in the past; he must find the beings to whom he could cling with loving admiration among those who came within speech of him. history reading myopia perspective George Eliot
ca3ab13 There is no hour that has not its births of gladness and despair, no morning brightness that does not bring new sickness to desolation as well as new forces to genius and love. There are so many of us, and our lots are so different, what wonder that Nature's mood is often in harsh contrast with the great crisis of our lives? perspective George Eliot
ec5b9d2 If there is such a thing as philosophical progress, then why - unlike scientific progress - is it so invisible? Philosophical progress is invisible because it is incorporated into our points of view. What was torturously secured by complex argument comes widely shared intuition, so obvious that we forget its provenance. perspective Rebecca Goldstein
fea5491 The dead outnumber the living fourteen to one, and we ignore the accumulated experience of such a huge majority of mankind at our peril perspective Niall Ferguson
3df2589 The novelist is required to create the illusion of a whole world with believable people in it, and the chief difference between the novelist who is an orthodox Christian and the novelist who is merely a naturalist is that the Christian novelist lives in a larger universe. He believes that the natural world contains the supernatural. And this doesn't mean that his obligation to portray the natural is less; it means it is greater. writer writing christian-writers novelist realistic-fiction writers-on-writing perspective perception perception-of-reality realism Flannery O'Connor
107bb91 It is not rubbish! It is the part of people that you do not understand. empathy counseling perspective E.M. Forster
6955628 Sometimes I think the urge to believe in our own worldview is our most powerful intellectual imperative, the mind's equivalent of feeding, fighting, and fornicating. People will eagerly twist facts into wholly unrecognizable shapes to fit them into existing suppositions. They'll ignore the obvious, select the irrelevant, and spin it all into a tapestry of self-deception, solely to justify an idea, no matter how impoverished or self-destructive. manipulation-of-facts self-destruction justification perspective ignorance Barry Eisler
4507c87 All right, all right, you go right on thinking you an act of God created in his image, and I'll go right on thinking I'm descended from an ape. When you look in the mirror I should think you'd feel pretty discouraged; I wouldn't be happy to look at myself and think that my faces is an Imago Dei. It wouldn't make me feel I'd done very well by God. But when I look in the mirror and that I'm descended from an ape, I feel I've done remarkably well. spiritual perspective Madeleine L'Engle
5acec87 For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses. The more you look the more you see. thoughts mindfulness possibilities perspective zen thinking questions ideas Robert M. Pirsig
29a2b2a "Early one beautiful summer evening, when everyone else was drinking indoors, Tony and I walked down to the river. We lay on the grass under a tree and chatted. At one point, Tony said, "Look at the pattern of lace the leaves make against the sky." I looked at the canopy above us, and suddenly saw what he saw. My perspective completely shifted. I realized I didn't have his "eyes" -- though once he pointed it out, it became obvious. It made me think, "My God, I never look enough," and in the years since, I've tried very hard to look -- and look again." perspective home Julie Andrews Edwards
4ebfbdf "How Horrid" has a slightly facetious tone that strikes me as Wildean. It appears to embrace the actual horror--puberty, public disgrace--then at the last second nimbly sidesteps it, laughing." rhetoric perspective Alison Bechdel
712cfb9 "Hertzfeld recalled that Gates just sat there coolly, looking at Steve in the eye, before hurling back, in his squeaky voice, what became a classic zinger. "Well, Steve, I think there's more than one way of looking at it, I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it." insult perspective theft technology Walter Isaacson
aeade7d It is hard to explain just how a single sight of a tangible object with measurable dimensions could so shake and change a man; and we may only say that there is about certain outlines and entities a power of symbolism and suggestion which acts frightfully on a sensitive thinker's perspective and whispers terrible hints of obscure cosmic relationships and unnamable realities behind the protective illusions of common vision. entities hints tangible whispers illusions perspective sight vision symbolism H.P. Lovecraft
d460757 Nor did he care about his childhood, for certainly I never heard him speak of it. I once questioned him about his early days and he would not answer. 'What is the egg to the eagle?' he asked me... quote living the-winter-king perspective quotes-on-life quotes human-nature Bernard Cornwell
55379de Apologies, one loses perspective after spending a week in a brothel. brothels perspective Christopher Moore
afa12d1 The Mother Thing makes our world. education maturation perspective parenthood Robert A. Heinlein
ada172e One mark of originality that can win canonical status for a literary work is strangeness that we either never altogether assimilate, or that becomes such a given that we are blinded to its idiosyncrasies. reading bias conventional-wisdom perspective culture Harold Bloom
d88c58b There were always those passengers who came aboard bearing grudges against the modern age. perspective technology nostalgia Erik Larson
1793ce5 If you had to jump six or seven feet or certainly drown, it's surprising how far even older people will jump. resolution priorities perspective Erik Larson
f5246e9 There are just as many stories to be told in the dark spots as there are in the bright ones. untold-stories perspective stories Jodi Picoult
311a98e Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it-- and have it repeated to us-- over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what's really important anymore. repeat more property perspective Mitch Albom
b595b0d "When critics surrender to the prevailing orthodoxy, the author says they adopt the rhetoric of an occupied country, "one that expects no liberation from liberation." romance bias conventional-wisdom conformity perspective science-fiction paranormal Harold Bloom
6b48cc3 The aesthetic is an individual rather than a societal concern. independence perspective Harold Bloom
65e69ac There's so much to write. Where should I start? I texted my old Jiko this question, and she wrote me back this: 'You should start where you are present individuality inspirational startup perspective creativity Ruth Ozeki
fa8a75f But, as I have said, the bugs had no interest in getting us...and no great curiosity or enthusiasm about us as such; from the cowardly cockroaches to the blind stolid ants they wanted only to be left alone to eat and breed and eat and breed, just like us. perspective William T. Vollmann
028a15a When Gregory says, 'Are they guilty?' he means, 'Did they do it?' But when he says, 'Are they guilty?' he means, 'Did the court find them so?' The lawyer's world is entire unto itself, the human pared away. lawyer perspective Hilary Mantel
b8e2ac6 "An acre of poppies and a forest of spruce boggle no one's mind. Even ten square miles of wheat gladdens the hearts of most . . . No, in the plant world, and especially among the flowering plants, fecundity is not an assault on human values. Plants are not our competitors; they are our prey and our nesting materials. We are no more distressed at their proliferation than an owl is at a population explosion among field mice . . . but in the animal world things are different, and human feelings are different . . . Fecundity is anathema only in the animal. "Acres and acres of rats" has a suitably chilling ring to it that is decidedly lacking if I say, instead, "acres and acres of tulips"." nature human life page-164 plants perspective gross Annie Dillard
6f9d9ff "I have a Greek-American friend who named her daughter "Nike" and is often asked why she chose to name her offspring after a sneaker." vocabulary perspective Rebecca Goldstein
7d0fb7d "You were contemplating the mountain, Mr. Conway?" Came the inquiry. "Yes, it's a fine sight. It has a name, I suppose?" "It is called Karakal" "I don't think I've ever heard of it. Is is very high?" "Over twenty-eight thousand feet." "Indeed? I didn't realize there would be anything on that scale outside the Himalayas. Has it been properly surveyed? Whose are the measurements?" "Whose would you expect, my dear sir? Is there anything incompatible between monasticism and trigonometry?" mountains perspective James Hilton
cd3c0a8 Dr. Warren was of the mental build of the man whose life would be interesting and full of outlook if it were spent on a desert island or in the Bastille. outlook mental perspective Frances Hodgson Burnett
72584df Look at everything as though you were seeing it either first time or last time. time life-lessons perspective Betty Smith
3ec0d1c Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently. life truths perspective Jeanette Winterson
7483982 But twice-two-makes-four is for all that a most insupportable thing. Twice-two-makes-four is, in my humble opinion, nothing but a piece of impudence. Twice-two-makes-four is a farcical, dressed-up fellow who stands across your path with arms akimbo and spits at you. ref-1-ix perspective Fyodor Dostoyevsky
cef3923 The author perceives nuances of Abigail Adams' character in the occasional errors she makes in readily quoting John Milton. Rather than giving the observer a reason to quibble, they are evidence that she had absorbed Milton's works enough to feel comfortable quoting them from memory. openness perspective perception intellect David McCullough
2ee8549 "I prefer feeling insignificant," said Jess. "I don't believe that." "I didn't say worthless, I said insignificant, as in the grand scheme of things." "But why?" "Because humans have such a complex. We're so self-involved. You have to get out to a place like this to remember how small humanity really is." And Jess was right. Numbers didn't matter here. Money didn't count, and all the words and glances, the quick exchanges that built or tore down reputations had no meaning in this place. The air was moist. Fallen leaves, spreading branches, and crisscrossing roots wicked water, so that the trees seemed to drink the misty air. Jess said, "All your worries fade away, because..." Emily finished her thought. "The trees put everything in perspective." nature fresh-air insignificant jess-bach forest perspective Allegra Goodman
7495e1c Malignant phenomena do not come out of a golden age. depravity perspective culture Barbara W. Tuchman
3dc203e There should be an honored place in history for statesmen whose ideas turned out to be right. heritage perspective Walter Isaacson
ae9533f When you change the way you see and interpret events, suddenly everything will be different for you. Everything will make sense. inspiration life philosophy inspirational passages-ventura passages-malibu chris-prentiss perspective Chris Prentiss
aa6cfb8 It is always dangerous to declare a turning point in history. We always tend to feel that, when we are alive, something really major is happening. perspective Thomas L. Friedman
e7623f9 Life is something like a doctor's prescription: taken alone, and the ingredients might kill you; but properly blended, they bring healing. perspective Warren W. Wiersbe
1049ed8 ...I had been with my father so constantly for so long that I knew less and less about him with every passing year. Every meaningful image was jumbled together with the countless moments of our daily life defeating my efforts to gain some perspective. perspective Jane Smiley
ad1ffbf If he (John Adams) could not control events, he could at least record them for posterity - perhaps the ultimate form of control. writing journalism perspective Joseph J. Ellis
2b7c2a9 "But the biggest clue seemed to be their expressions. They were hard to explain. Good-natured, friendly, easygoing...and uninvolved. They were like spectators. You had the feeling they had just wandered in there themselves and somebody had handed them a wrench. There was no identification with the job. No saying, "I am a mechanic." At 5 P.M. or whenever their eight hours were in, you knew they would cut it off and not have another thought about their work. They were already trying not to have any thoughts about their work on the job." work automaton employees mindless mindfulness mindset sheep perspective quality consciousness awareness Robert M. Pirsig
e1d8fc4 On the Rules of Perspective A bad trick. Mistake. Dishonesty. These are the views of Braque. Why? Braque rejected perspective. Why? Someone who spends his life drawing profiles will end up believing that man has one eye, Braque felt. Braque wanted to take full possession of objects. He said as much in published interviews. Watching the small shiny planes of the landscape recede out of his grasp filled Braque with loss so he smashed them. Nature morte, said Braque. perspective Anne Carson
a5dc056 The better you look, the more you see model superficiality perspective perception inequality vanity Bret Easton Ellis
363131f Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently literature perspective perspective-on-life story-telling stories Jeanette Winterson
443f4dc They were trying to orchestrate a revolution, which almost by definition generated a sense of collective trauma that defied any semblance of coherence and control. If we wish to rediscover the psychological context of the major players in Philadelphia, we need to abandon our hindsight omniscience and capture their mentality as they negotiated the unknown. history perspective stress Joseph J. Ellis
7afeabd To some extent the romantic condemnation of rationality stems from the very effectiveness of rationality in uplifting men from primitive conditions. romantic philosophy rational perspective Robert M. Pirsig
f659fd5 I start to think, 'It's awful being too poor to even buy my own dress for homecoming.' But that's instantly swept away by another thought: 'I'm so lucky that someone cates enough to loan me a dress. poverty pessimist viewpoint perspective optimist Margaret Peterson Haddix
8a870c4 In proportion that property is small, the danger of misusing the franchisee is great. manipulation perspective materialism democracy Barbara W. Tuchman
43ef9d8 And the sun on the wall of her room, the block of sun with all the tiny flying things in it. When she was little she thought they were the souls of dead insects, still buzzing in the light. imagination perspective sunlight innocence Tim Winton
232f3a7 She was still glad she looked like Scully. He wasn't pretty either, but pretty people weren't the kind you need. Pretty people saw themselves in the mirror and were either too happy or too sad. People like Billie just shrugged and didn't care. She didn't want to turn into anyone pretty. Anyway, she had scars now, you only had to look. attitude vainity perspective pretty children Tim Winton
37958ee The author points out that novices to total war, and this Hitler and the British press have in common, overreact to daily events and lose sight of overall strategy. leadership perspective William Manchester
60c10bd What we call coincidences, accidental and remarkable events occurring at the same time, are actually circumstances and events that have come into your life to serve a purpose- and that purpose is to benefit you. inspiration life philosophy inspirational life-purpose non-12-step-program passage-ventura passages-malibu chris-prentiss perspective quotes Chris Prentiss
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