Quotes About Perspective

reality doesn't care about winning arguments: survival is what matters.

Never ask people what they want, or where they want to go, or where they think they should go, or, worse, what they think they will desire tomorrow.

the distance between opinions is remarkably narrower than the distance between the average of opinions and truth.

Missing a train is only painful if you run after it!

their intention was to bring a critical "balance" and use me as a counter to the numerous imaginative forecasts

Como se supone que dijo Stalin (que algo sabía sobre la mortalidad): «Una muerte es una tragedia; un millón de muertes, una estadística». La estadística permanece callada en nuestro interior.

Wealthy' is meaningless and has no robust absolute measure; use instead the subtractive measure 'unwealth,' that is, the difference, at any point in time, between what you have and what you would like to have.

Even from an anatomical perspective, it is impossible for our brain to see anything in raw form without some interpretation. We may not even always be conscious of it.

People can't predict how long they will be happy with recently acquired objects, how long their marriages will last, how their new jobs will turn out, yet it's subatomic particles that they cite as "limits of prediction." They're ignoring a mammoth standing in front of them in favor of matter even a microscope would not allow them to see.

The reference point argument is as follows: do not compute odds from the vantage point of the winning gambler (or the lucky Casanova, or the endlessly bouncing back New York City, or the invincible Carthage), but from all those who started in the cohort. Consider

people look for books that support their mental program.

Birds fly and those who lecture them are the ones who write their story. So it is easy to see that history is truly written by losers with time on their hands and a protected academic position.

So not only can the past be misleading, but there are also many degrees of freedom in our interpretation of past events.

The floor of the Parthenon is curved in reality so we can see it as straight.

my antidote to Black Swans is precisely to be noncommoditized in my thinking. But

We are talking about preventing our students from reading Huckleberry Finn! And why? Because it offends some people. Show me a book that offends no one, and i will show you a book that no one, in the whole history of the world, has ever willingly read.

Si ella una noche no la encendía y se quedaba leyendo un libro en la butaca, él decía: «¿Cómo es que no enciendes la televisión? ¡Enciéndela! Si no, no sirve para nada tenerla. ¡Gino te la ha regalado y tú no la ves! ¡Le has hecho tirar el dinero! ¡Ahora por lo menos vela!».

Y entonces, nos sentimos inexplicablemente felices, desmesuradamente felices por ese helado que tomaremos dentro de poco; nos preguntamos: ¿cómo es posible tanta felicidad ante la perspectiva de un helado, en nosotros que somos tan adultos en nuestros vertiginosos pensamientos, que estamos tan extrañamente perdidos en un mundo de sombras?

Nuevo astro que surge», decía mi padre cada vez que nombrábamos a la señora Ghiran. «Nuevo astro que surge» o sólo «nuevo astro» era siempre su ironía cada vez que nosotros nos entusiasmábamos con alguien.

È una strana consolazione sentirsi dire dieci volte al giorno: siate allegro, non occorre altro alla vostra malattia. Certo il rimedio è eccellente, ma il suggerirlo non è lo stesso che amministrarlo. Non pensano che siate allegro significa siete triste, e che nulla è meno allegro di questa idea.

Existen personas para las que cualquier pequeño viaje o perspectiva de viaje supone aprensión y cansancio; una empresa agotadora. Para otras es un acto simple como sonarse la nariz.

That doesn't sound like civil war to me, said Gaylen, turning back to his book with a smile. It only sounds silly. Of course it's silly, said the Prime Minister impatiently. But a lot of serious things start silly.

Life's got to be lived, no matter how long or short

When the world you're used to, that same old world you thought you knew so well, turns itself suddenly upside down, what can you do? Everything comes tumbling off the shelves of your expectations; nothing fits anymore.