Quotes About Perspective

and thanked me for listening to his story. Now it's yours. It's out there. Do with it what you will. There it was. He wanted me to write it. I had no intention of doing so.

You listened so patiently. I suppose I want to know. What do you think? You did what anyone would have done, I said. It was the closest thing to a benediction I could offer. The fact that I didn't think it true, didn't make a difference.

People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.

We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.

You a Catholic, Harry?" O'Neill asked. "I was. Can't see it any more." "You know something?" O'Neill offered after a pause. "Religion is for punks and old folks. When you're a punk you need it because you don't know any better and it straightens you up. And when you're old you need it for comfort before you check out. But in between it's no good.

People love talking of their diseases, although they are the most uninteresting things in their lives.

You ask What is life? That is the same as asking What is a carrot? A carrot is a carrot and we know nothing more.

If only one tooth aches, rejoice that not all of them ache.... If your wife betrays you, be glad that she betrayed only you and not the nation.

When one longs for a drink, it seems as though one could drink a whole oceanthat is faith; but when one begins to drink, one can only drink altogether two glassesthat is science.

It has become customary to say that a man needs only six feet of land. But a corpse needs six feet, not a person.

The more simply we look at ticklish questions, the more placid will be our lives and relationships.

No culture should be romanticized or denigrated: like all others, Indians should be understood and evaluated on their own terms

Look for the whole story and you'll get a lot closer to the truth.

There has always been a fuss. The difference is that now you and others are listening.

La felicidad no es una estación a la que se llega, sino una manera de viajar. MARGARET LEE RUNBECK

I think there's a tremendous split between people who've been through a war and people who haven't.

I think there has been a great deal of valuable revisionism in women's history.

the deep division that exists in the human race, regardless of any other more obvious distinction, between those for whom books are an obsession, and those who are prepared, good-humouredly enough, to tolerate their existence.

One of the most quoted Stoic sayings must surely be Epictetus' (which we first encountered on p. 39): 'People are disturbed not by things, but by the views they take of things.

Musonius Rufus writes that the soul is strengthened by first reminding ourselves of the right perspectives and then moulding our actions to this understanding, so that we stop pursuing things that are not truly good and stop avoiding things that only seem bad. In this way, we 'won't welcome pleasure and avoid pain … won't love living and fear death, and … in the case of money, [we] won't honor receiving over giving.

I am not staying with the murderer," she said, her words muffled by his jacket. "I am not staying with the victim Abel Tannatek or the culprit Abel Tannatek. I am staying with the storyteller.

Nothing was perfect, but everything was all right. The light was never just blue.

She had taught herself how to knit, and for the mare's scarf - it was green - she had given herself the best grade possible. And ...' 'That's silly!' Micha giggled. 'Well, who is the cliff queen, you or me?' Abel asked. 'It isn't my fault if you're giving yourself grades!