Quotes About Perspective

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

St. Teresa of Avila described our life in this world as like a night at a second-class hotel.

It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.

Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.

There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.

Man, unlike the animal, has never learned that the sole purpose of life is to enjoy it.

When a man is gloomy, everything seems to go wrong; when he is cheerful, everything seems right!

Many people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can and don't put off being happy until some future date.

The secret of happiness is to count your blessings - not your birthdays.

We all have 100% to deal with in our lives: 10% is important, 90% unimportant. The secret to a happy, productive life is to deal with the 10% and let the 90% slip.

Life holds so much, so much to be happy about always. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can be felt only if you don't set any conditions.

Better to be happy than wise.

When ill luck besets us, to ease the tension we have only to remember that happiness is relative. The next time you are tempted to grumble about what has happened to you, why not pause and be glad that it is no worse than it is?

I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.

Humor is the healthy way of feeling "distance" between one's self and the problem, a way of standing off and looking at one's problems with perspective.

There is no defense against adverse fortune which is so effectual as an habitual sense of humor.

We have a tendency to obscure the forest of simple joys with the trees of problems.

Although a lot can be learned from adversity, most of the same lessons can be learned through laughter and joy.

A good laugh helps us recognize how ridiculous it is to get excited about matters that are often trivial. . . .

When we can laugh through our tears, we are being given a powerful message. Things may be bad, but they cannot be all that bad.

A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world: everyone you meet is your mirror.

Literature is mostly about sex and not much about having children; and life is the other way around.