Quotes About Reality

we see the world as we are, not as the world is.

Since the advent of the iPhone, people seem to think it is more important, and maybe more fun, to photograph and record life rather than actually live it. I see that as unfortunate for them, but it has definitely been a boon to police investigations everywhere.

Few people win consistently, so the tax situation shouldn't matter. But one overriding thing about gamblers is that they always think they are going to win, despite years of evidence to the contrary.

We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic.

History is not truth — it records not what occurred but what is remembered.

Perhaps five thousand miles of desert and mountains and ocean separated him from his family. But sometimes their faces were so real he felt he could reach out and tousle their hair….

no such thing as the truth. There are only shades of lies.

Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

The great thinkers of the early church wrote numerous commentaries on the creation story in Genesis 1–3, more so than any other part of the Bible, because they understood that it contradicted the fundamental beliefs of their inherited pagan culture and challenged them to replace it with something that was true to reality.

The stress on observation and the reality principle—you can believe what you see, so long as you see what I see—paid off beyond understanding.

Being in love is dangerous because you talk yourself into thinking you've never had it so good.

Critical to the credence given in the West to official Russian explanations was an inability to accept the idea that the Yeltsin regime would murder hundreds of its own citizens and terrify the nation to hold on to power. This refusal to believe the unbelievable, however, came at a cost. It crippled Western policy toward Russia, rendering it naïve and ineffectual. From the moment Putin took power, the West maintained an image of Russia that bore no relation to reality.

The secret to life is: there is no secret.

traders who are honest with themselves, will admit that being consistently successful in this game is extremely hard. Some studies suggest that 95% of traders lose money, and "only 5% of traders can make a living at it," or "only 1% of traders really make big money." 39 John

The fact, if they are there, speak for themselves.

As a child I assumed that when I reached adulthood, I would have grown-up thoughts.

Every day we're told that we live in the greatest country on earth. And it's always stated as an undeniable fact: Leos are born between July 23 and August 22, fitted queen-size sheets measure sixty by eighty inches, and America is the greatest country on earth. Having grown up with this in our ears, it's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are 'We're number two!

All of us take pride and pleasure in the fact that we are unique, but I'm afraid that when all is said and done the police are right: it all comes down to fingerprints.

Nic is absent, only his shell remains. I have been afraid—terrified—to lose Nic, but I have lost him. In the past, I tried to imagine the unimaginable and I tried to imagine bearing the unbearable. I imagined losing Nic by overdose or accident, but now I comprehend that I have already lost him. Today, at least, he is lost.

I can try to protect my children, to help and guide them, and I can love them, but I cannot save them. Nic, Jasper, and Daisy will live, and someday they will die, with or without me.

It took my near death, however, to comprehend that his fate—and Jasper's and Daisy's—is separate from mine. I can try to protect my children, to help and guide them, and I can love them, but I cannot save them. Nic, Jasper, and Daisy will live, and someday they will die, with or without me.

Playing well requires study—period. There are more and less sophisticated ways to play the game, and those unwilling to face up to the reality of chess knowledge will be consigned forever to be ineffective, ignorant underachievers. (Understanding this hard truth didn't amount to acting on it, but it was at least a good first step.)

Is it possible that contemporary literary prizes are a bit like the federal bailout package, subsidizing work that is no longer remotely describing reality?

Ignorance of fact is not evidence for fiction.