Quotes About Discernment

You cannot see the wood for the trees.

I think it is a medically proven fact that the older one gets, the more quick one is two spots conspiracies. Skulduggery. Cloak and dagger stuff.

It is a hard fact that cruel actions differ from kind ones, and hence that we can learn, as in fact we all do, to distinguish them fairly well in practice, and to use the words 'cruel' and 'kind' with fairly clear descriptive meanings; but is it an equally hard fact that actions which are cruel in such a descriptive sense are to be condemned?

Every man carries about him a touchstone, if he will make use of it, to distinguish substantial gold from superficial glitterings, truth from appearances. And indeed the use and benefit of this touchstone, which is natural reason, is spoiled and lost only by assumed prejudices, overweening presumption, and narrowing our minds.

The most perfect character is supposed to lie between those extremes; retaining an equal ability and taste for books, company, and business; preserving in conversation that discernment and delicacy which arise from polite letters; and in business, that probity and accuracy which are the natural result of a just philosophy.

Reason must be our last judge and guide in everything.

Everyone likes everything nowadays. They like the television and the phonograph and the shampoo and the soda pop and the Cracker Jack. Everything becomes everything else and it's all nice and pretty and LIKABLE. Everything is fun in the sun! Where's the discernment? Where's the arbitration that separates what I LIKE from what I RESPECT, what I deem WORTHY, what has... listen to me now... SIGNIFICANCE.

Faith also requires "purification" in Ratzinger's thought.  For Ratzinger, reason allows faith to discern what is superstitious from what is true and what inconsistent with truth from what is a genuine expansion of knowledge.

Coaches have to watch for what they don't want to see and listen to what they don't want to hear.

One wouldn't want to consult with foreign snakes.

It is known, I was told.

As a general rule, if you're holding down a job it's best to lie low and keep your mouth shut.

Incidentally, common sense is not so common and is the highest praise we give to a chain of logical conclusions.

She had Discernment to forsee, and avoid all those Ills which might attend the Loss of her Reputation, but was wholly blind to those of the Ruin of her Virtue; and having managed her Affairs so as to secure the one, grew perfectly easy with the Remembrance, she had forfeited the other.

There were times to rise to the bait, and times not to.

She hadn't understood the plan until she spoke it.

I cannot see as they see, in shades of advantage and degrees of subtlety.

Sometimes a thing can be true, and not for immediate sharing. That was, Connla had assured me more than once, how diplomacy worked.

It's why I want us to be very careful what we commit to while we're dealing with this station. They make bad governmental choices, and by patronizing them, we're just validating their choices.

If I turned my head to look at this woman on the street, it would be because of her hearing-because she is tall, and stern as the iron color of her hair. It would be because of the stubborn military shoulders and the chipped flint of an unmistakably Iroquois nose, the crows's-feet at the corners of her eyes. I might not even notice the glittering steel of her left hand until she moved into my line of sight.

It did not take a great deal of native genius for Cathoair to figure out that they wanted something from him.

It's hard to see what's good, what's right, when you're in the middle of it.

Just remember when temptation comes your way that a boy will drink beyond his means and a man will know when he's had enough." "Yes

Chretien speaking to Dominic: 'Magda is no ordinary young woman. There is a blood price on her head way beyond that upon any Cathar, indeed way beyond mine. I advise you most strongly to think with your head, not your loins.' 'I am thinking,' Dominic said softly, 'with my heart.