Quotes About Perspective

For the most part we inherit our opinions. We are the heirs of habits and mental customs. Our beliefs, like the fashion of our garments, depend on where we were born. We are molded and fashioned by our surroundings.

History is nothing but the lies we tell about our ancestors

fear is overestimating your problems and underestimating your God. How often we minimize our Savior and maximize our storms!

When we view things horizontally, we feel confusion; but when we see things vertically, life makes sense—including the direction of history. Everything changes when we interpret events below with wisdom from above and see things as the Lord does in heaven.

His point is that we are what we think, and our lives run in the direction of our thoughts. If we think angry thoughts, we'll be angry; if we think positive thoughts, we'll be positive; if we think negative thoughts, we'll be negative. The mind is a garden, and we have to cultivate it, and we are responsible for the kind of seed we sow into the furrows of our mind.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.

The next time you're overwhelmed, instead of asking, "How can I get out of this mess?" try asking, "How can God be glorified in this situation?" One's perspective is entirely changed by the spiritual realities behind that approach. It's like switching on floodlights in a dark stadium.

Emotions come and go; attitudes come and grow.

Our thoughts are the most important thing about us. All that we achieve or fail to achieve is the direct result of our thinking. Our thoughts are like seeds that produce crops.

Cornerstone No. 4 is the Ice-Ball Theory, which states: Given the apparent, ultimate fate of the earth, it is vain and nonsensical to take oneself too seriously.

The reality from my vantage point was that 50 billion years from now, when the earth is nothing but an ice ball, my problems of today will be too insignificant to have been recorded. Indeed, there would undoubtedly not even be a record of the entire century in which I had lived most of my life.

When you deal with sick minds, never waste time trying to become a healer. The most humane act you can perform for such a person is to state things in such a way that it will make him feel better about how things work out—especially if it involves your getting paid. After all, you can cause him a great deal of stress if you allow him to believe that he might actually be paying you what he owes you.

Never state, in an agreement, what you want out of the deal before stating what the other party is going to get, because the other guy doesn't give a hoot about what you want. All he's interested in is what's in it for him. This is especially true of people who insist that "in order for a deal to work out, everyone has to be satisfied." Forget such babble; it's a fairy tale that will only cause you to drop your guard and lose some fingers in the process.)

I think only half of life satisfaction is found by achieving what you believe you want; the other half comes from appreciating what you have already achieved.

Es nuestra concepción de la muerte lo que determina nuestras respuestas a todas las preguntas que la vida nos plantea.

To a European, a hundred miles is a big journey; to an American, a hundred years is a long time.

You really did uplift me. You gave me the perspective and point of view and focus I needed to become truly conscious. Without you, I wouldn't exist.

Free will is not always the most important thing

Yet, for most, our journey toward having the healthiest perspective possible is shaped by the way we face and "make friends" with the periodic roadblocks we encounter on our way.

life—"spiritual Alzheimer's": the incremental loss of the ability to be grateful and joyful about the daily gifts of life—no matter what the circumstances of our lives at that moment.

Everyone uses their own dictionary.

The way I always kind of look at it: everything's important and nothing's important. If you're gonna have a drama, have it over something that's worth the time. Some people take it more seriously than others, like a Lowell. But we all end up the same.

Why was not important. That was not the way he approached his life. 'Analysis destroys wholes. Some things, magic things, are meant to stay whole. If you look at their pieces, they go away.

I was wrong, Robert. I was wrong, but I can't go. Let me tell you again why I can't go. Tell me again why I should go.