Quotes About Perspective

Better a thousand times the Arab untouched. The foreigners come out here always to teach, whereas they had much better learn.

You know, men do nearly all die laughing, because they know death is very terrible, and a thing to be forgotten till after it has come. T. E. LAWRENCE, IN A LETTER TO HIS MOTHER, 1916

Moving into our small American housing enclave above the city were the families of American officers stationed in Saigon, and the free-ranging game of Cowboys and Indians that we boys in the neighborhood had previously played was renamed Green Berets and Viet Cong. It didn't actually change the game that much, except that in the past the Indians sometimes won, and in the new version the Viet Cong never did.

relativism refers to an ethical system in which right and wrong are not absolute and unchanging but relative to one's culture (cultural relativism) or one's own personal preferences (moral subjectivism).

Writers aren't exactly people, they are a whole bunch of people trying to be one person.

Thus, there is a hidden grandeur in the most ordinary things. St. Josemaria saw this, and he had little patience for those would-be saints with romantic inclinations who saw ordinary life as merely an obstacle to true greatness.

When one is tricked into accepting a favor, it feels like a trick, not a favor.

That's not a good enough answer." "I know that better than anyone. But it is the answer regardless of whether or not you think it's good enough. That's what makes reality reality, the fact that it just keeps being true no matter how much you argue with it.

S'ils avaient un peu plus d'amour-propre, ils ne se laisseraient pas aller à se contenter (même avec passion) d'un objectif aussi superficiel et d'un avenir aussi étroit.

Stop to consider why your judgement might be wrong.

Sometimes, all it takes is a few words to change your life.

Sometimes you're just too close to something to see it clearly. To see it for what it really is. It's like you've got your face pressed to it, and all you can see is the small points. The things you want to see.

She is arguing the

She made up this whole tale about me. I worked in the jail. I hated the men in there. Just the way she and most of the other girls hated the men in the club. That's why they seemed to do it. For the chance to look down on men, who want it so badly, so openly, and who're not going to get it.

stained-glass panels between

For me, becoming a parent completely changed my idea about what it means to walk on this planet. Most people would say the same thing. It's as if the world has gone from flat to 3-D.

Only when my marriage ended another decade later did I tumble to the recognition that my sister was happy, far happier than many other people who arrive in their middle years, including me.

Your father always suspected that being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain—Maddy glanced at Tally—and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. He always thought that some people could think their way out of it.

Listen, you bubblehead-up-until-five-minutes-ago...

High school wasn't a trial by fire or some ordeal that had to be survived. It was all a big joke. You just had to provide the laugh track.

The lie took form as she spoke, pulling on as many strands of truth as it could reach.

But you weren't born expecting that kind of beauty in everyone, all the time. You just got programmed into thinking anything else is ugly.

It's just been a long week, that's all. It's monday night, Jess. My point exactly.

Becoming pretty doesn't just change the way you look, she said. No, David said. It changes the way you think.