Quotes About Perspective

those who travel the world hoping to get "blinded by the light" are often blind to the light that's all around them.

The more we associate experience with cash value, the more we think that money is what we need to live. And the more we associate money with life, the more we convince ourselves that we're too poor to buy our freedom.

finding a singular travel experience doesn't require heroism so much as a simple change of mind-set. The reason so many travelers become frustrated while visiting world-famous destinations is that they are still playing by the rules of home, which "reward" you for following set routines and protocols.

I always write from my own experiences, whether I've had them or not.

I always write from experience, whether I've had them or not.

Fisher Ames observed of Hamilton that the common people don't want leaders "whom they see elevated by nature and education so far above their heads.

Early disappointments with people left Washington with a residual cynicism that was to jibe well with Hamilton's views.

have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances.

They promulgated a view of the Civil War as a righteous cause that had nothing to do with slavery but only states' rights—to which an incredulous James Longstreet once replied, "I never heard of any other cause of the quarrel than slavery.

Burr is said to have remarked, "Had I read Sterne more and Voltaire less, I should have known the world was wide enough for Hamilton and me.

While reading the scene in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy in which the tenderhearted Uncle Toby picks up a fly and delicately places it outside a window instead of killing it, Burr is said to have remarked, "Had I read Sterne more and Voltaire less, I should have known the world was wide enough for Hamilton and me.

all looking up at the windows of J. P. Morgan & Co.

Rockefeller always sees a little further than the rest of us—and then he sees around the corner.

perhaps he had so thoroughly rationalized his own behavior that he saw himself in the same glowing, virtuous light as his son did.

He once told a friend, "Perhaps my sensibility is the effect of an exaggerated estimate of my services to the U[nited] States, but on such a subject every man will judge for himself.

Rockefeller developed an inverted worldview, accusing his critics of exactly the same sins of which they accused him.

While Rockefeller and Gates were irked by the Merritts' ingratitude, they were not entirely blameless.

Each side possessed a lurid, distorted view of the other, buttressed by an idealized sense of itself.

As a result of John's foresight in assigning him to New York, William's career became closely intertwined with that of Wall Street—to an uncomfortable extent, from John's later perspective.

Rockefeller felt no discomfort at being surrounded by humble people

When it comes to understanding others," I said, "we rarely tax our imaginations.

The past is fractal premonition, infinite to the eye but nothing to be built on . . .

We need to live our experience as it is and with our eyes open. The universe is the way it is, whether we like it or not.

The crown prince laughed. "But this is the flu!" he said. "We have the flu every year! We all get the flu, even the royal family!