Quotes About Perspective

According to research at Northwestern University (Donna Bridge, Feinberg School of Medicine), your memory of an event is not actually a memory of the event, but a recall (memory) of the last recall (memory) of the event. The more recalls, the more the memory changes, like Chinese whispers. So, you can be holding on to events that have changed over time and become even further from the past reality. And that's kind of nuts.

Pain represents 10 percent of the problem, while suffering, which is not wanting to feel the pain, represents 90 percent of the problem.

I was about to be buried in the best-looking coffin I'd ever seen, and I wouldn't even be too dead to enjoy myself.

You lose a certain type of innocence when you experience this type of kindness. You lose your right to be a jaded cynic. You can no longer go back through the looking glass and pretend not to know what you know about kindness.

Some nights I would drive up Route 29 to the all-night Wal-Mart. I'd push a cart around with some paper towels inside to look like a real shopper, just to spy on married people. I just wanted to be near them, to listen to them argue...Married people fight over some dumb shit when they think there aren't any widowers eavesdropping. And they never think there are widowers eavesdropping."--Rob Sheffield (Love is a Mix Tape)

There's only the one, see. When you fall in love with a girl, she's the bloody White Album. That is what you whisper to yourself, when you don't understand her at all. You just keep telling yourself, she's the bloody Beatles White Album and there's only one of her.

You lose a certain kind of innocence when you experience this type of kindness. You lose your right to be a jaded cynic. You can no longer go back through the looking glass and pretend not to know what you know about kindness. It's a defeat, in a way.

If you freak out over trivial everyday grievances, how are you going to handle *real* problems?

How do you turn down the volume on your personal-drama earphones and learn how to listen to other people?

If she breaks my heart, no matter what hell she puts me through, I can say it was worth it, just because of right now.

Love dies in many different ways, and it's natural for the grass to seem greener on the other side. But it's not a competition; there's plenty of pain to go around.

One of Renee's friends asked her, "Does your boyfriend wear glasses?" She said, "No, he wears a Walkman.

Not that I like having my direst preconceptions about humanity confirmed or anything. But I was right.

Why is it always the world? Why is it never just half a block? Or Jersey? You know, something we could live without?

Snap judgments? I'd gotten over those about the time I was toilet trained. Swore off diapers and faith in the human experience all in one week.

Most kids don't believe in fairy tales very long. Once they hit six or seven they put away "Cinderella" and her shoe fetish, "The Three Little Pigs" with their violation of building codes, "Miss Muffet" and her well?shaped tuffet—all forgotten or discounted.And maybe that's the way it has to be. To survive in the world, you have to give up the fantasies, the make?believe.

The fact that the bodies weren't my first concern–-pissing and bodies were, in that order—-helped too. Killers have different priorities.

If I had a bad day, which, now that I ran my own life, was a helluva lot less than the old days, I sat on the floor with Houdini, placed a hand on his broad head, and soaked up endless doggy wonder. A full stomach, a well-chewed toy, a soft couch—through a dog's eyes, that was a true glory that couldn't be matched, the only heaven in existence. I missed the furball, missed him like crazy.

But hoping you never saw someone again is a damn sight different from wishing them dead.

I think I got a rock in mine, 'stead of bacon." "Heh. Well, that's life for you. Sometimes you get bacon. Sometimes you get a rock. My advice to you, sir, is to eat what you can, spit out what you cain't.

Climb up on some hill at sunrise. Everybody needs perspective once in a while, and you'll find it there.

Nick looked back for a moment at the arched sign, but it looked different when it was spelled right-ORPHANAGE. It wasn't EGANAHPRO any more.

People who sneer at a half a loaf of bread have never been hungry." George Reedy

Too often we develop a blindness for all of the wonderful things in life.