Quotes About Perspective

I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way, did not become still more complicated.

we don't talk about what we see; we see only what we can talk about

Language] can serve as a medium through which we create new understandings and new realities as we begin to talk about them. In fact, we don't talk about what we see; we see only what we can talk about.

When our small research group moved from MIT to Dartmouth College years ago, one of the Dartmouth engineering professors watched us in seminars for a while, and then dropped by our offices. "You people are different," he said. "You ask different kinds of questions. You see things I don't see. Somehow you come at the world in a different way. How? Why?

embodied in the notion that there is no certainty in any worldview. But, in fact, everyone who has managed to entertain that idea, for a moment or for a lifetime, has found it to be the basis for radical empowerment. If no paradigm is right, you can choose whatever one will help to achieve your purpose.

I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way, did not become still more complicated. —POUL ANDERSON

The world peeps, squawks, bangs, and thunders at many frequencies all at once. What is a significant delay depends—usually—on which set of frequencies you're trying to understand.

You can see some things through the lens of the human eye, other things through the lens of a microscope, others through the lens of a telescope, and still others through the lens of systems theory. Everything seen through each kind of lens is actually there. Each way of seeing allows our knowledge of the wondrous world in which we live to become a little more complete.

We live in an exaggerated present—we pay too much attention to recent experience and too little attention to the past, focusing on current events rather than long-term behavior.

There is too much bad news to justify complacency. There is too much good news to justify despair.

Vision involves more than just seeing or being shown.

When we're not busy being somewhere else, more often than not what we participate with is our past or future version of ourselves and our life. Instead of seeing how things actually are, we continue to see them as they once were or as we imagine they will be.

This is why working with our most deeply held resentments and grudges can bring about the greatest change, because it is here that we start to deconstruct the scaffolding upon which all our other points of view are based.

time acts as an invisible mortar for our experience; it is what stands between potentially discordant elements and, through finding their correct relationship, brings all into a unified whole.

The happier people become the more I noticed my sadness.

My way of knowing is by putting myself in the other's place. Forgiveness gave me the method. I see through your eyes.

Delete the negative accentuate the positive!

Accent your positive and delete your negative.

You say romantic, I say stalker," Kerry grumbled to Fiona as they pushed their way into the Rusty Puffin. "Please," Fiona retorted, adding an eye roll for good measure. She was a master of those. "Mr. Dead Sexy From Down Under, a hardworking, successful man you greatly admired, with a family you apparently adored, flies halfway around the world to propose to you? Take a poll. That's off-the-charts romantic.

It is easier to read about life than to live it, Even so young I knew that. Even so young I needed a rest from the living.

Variety is overrated, honey. Regardless of what your country club friends say, most women just want to find a decent guy who can inspire lust now and again.

Now, regardless of how she looked on the outside, inside she still felt fifty. Why did no one understand that?

Sometimes I get bored riding down the beautiful streets of L.A. I know it sounds crazy, but I just want to go to New York and see people suffer.

I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.