Quotes About Perspective

Even if one is interested only in one's own society, which is one's prerogative, one can understand that society much better by comparing it with others.

THE FOLLOWING ARGUMENT is intended to be an exercise in sociological theory. Specifically, it seeks to apply a general theoretical perspective derived from the sociology of knowledge to the phenomenon of religion. While at certain points the argument moves on levels of considerable abstraction, it never leaves (at least not intentionally) the frame of reference of the empirical discipline of sociology.

The botanist looking at a daffodil has no reason to dispute the right of the poet to look at the same object in a very different manner. There are many ways of playing. The point is not that one denies other people's games but that one is clear about the rules of one's own.

When looking at the same sky, people in mature industries see clouds where people in immature industries see pie.

The most effective people are those who can "hold" their vision while remaining committed to seeing current reality clearly

Reality is made up of circles but we see straight lines.

Acceptance is not a state of passivity or inaction. I am not saying you can't change the world, right wrongs, or replace evil with good. Acceptance is, in fact, the first step to successful action. If you don't fully accept a situation precisely the way it is, you will have difficulty changing it. Moreover, if you don't fully accept the situation, you will never really know if the situation should be changed.

Poisons and medicine are oftentimes the same substance given with different intents.

The careful reader, and even the careless reader who's had a few too many drinks, will notice that the Point of View is not all male. You'll see plenty of male nakedness here, and the women are not the rocket-breasted, uber-sexualized portrayals of women that comics often offer.

she's teaching me to see to be blind sighted.

What we find changes who we become.

Between perfect vision and total blindness lies all the truth we know.

Ethnographers adopt a particular stance toward people with whom they work. By word and action, in subtle ways and direct statements, they say, "I want to understand the world from your point of view. I want to know what you know in the way you know it. I want to understand the meaning of your experience, to walk in your shoes, to feel things as you feel them, to explain things as you explain them. Will you become my teacher and help me understand?"[102]

What is life except excuse for death, or death except escape from life?' Recall my name with kindness now and then.

The likelihood of meeting anyone who wouldn't make him feel even lonelier seemed increasingly remote. Life was a dwindling process now, not a building proposition. He couldn't imagine being with someone new, opening up, feeling appreciated and understood, without having to explain his dubious non sequiturs and increasingly arcane or redundant frame of reference.

I've never looked for women. When I was a teenager, perhaps. But they are looking for us, and we [men] must learn that very quickly. They decide. We just turn up. Never mind the superficialities – tall and handsome and all that. Just turn up

For me, life has either been a wake or a wedding.

By employing classical concepts of idealized beauty and changes in perspective, icons speak to us of reality transformed and transfigured, both in and through God's presence. They speak of transcendence and mystery. As iconographers, we point to a reality that we have never seen with our own eyes. In fact, all our images of God, heaven, the angels, and the saints, whether in poetry, prose, ritual, music, or icons, represent our limited attempts to speak of the unspeakable.

In life; when you expect good to happen, the bad happens and when you see the bad coming, then comes the good'' ''Never be overconfident about your expectations

Still, wouldn't you, even if entirely secure in your own sense of direction, be at least curious where others were heading, even as you struck out on your own ?

Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you do is for yourself—and there isn't one. —Wei Wu Wei

Being driven by your beliefs is a very different matter than consciously understanding how it is your beliefs are created and what purpose they serve.

We don't know who discovered water, but we're certain it wasn't a fish. —John Culkin

Our core beliefs simply appear to us as reality.