Quotes About Perspective

It was that ugly moment when you had to back up through time inside your head, and reframe everything you thought you knew about somebody. You had to revise reality after the fact. At least the reality you thought you knew.

Here's what I think about dying: I think it's not so much about being and then not being. I think it's more about where you are. Not whether you are.

Hmm," he said. "Like the world is big again. No. Not again. Like I only thought it had gotten small while I was inside, but now I see it was big the whole time, just waiting out there. Waiting for me to come back.

Thirty-six years. I'm not saying I know it all. In one way, we've all just got the time since we got up this morning. But I've seen a lot of people walk a lot of roads. Some not so happy. And it makes them what they are. So if you run around putting a pillow under people to cushion their fall . . . well, I'm just not sure it's quite the favor we think it is.

corneas? Why arent you off somewhere gazing

People get by in all kinds of situations. All over the world people are getting by on almost nothing. Losing things they think they can't live without. Or at least that they think they can't be happy without. But then it's pretty hard to be happy . . . you know . . . if it's dependent on some material possession not going away. I don't

All he had to do was not look down. And yet he always looked down. Every time. The more he told himself not to look down, the more he looked. It was a key example of life running frustratingly out of his control. Even Buddy seemed to be outside Buddy's sphere of influence.

my thoughts about happiness: I've been experimenting with the idea that it's a decision. Now, that's an easy statement to argue. You may say, "But there's so much I can't control, and it makes me unhappy." Right. True. There's a lot we can't control. But if we could be happy anyway, then we could be happy.

Nobody will ever shoot me, and you know it. They will shoot my friend Luis, but they will never shoot me. And the people on the other side, they don't even see it. I see my privilege because I have lived both with it and without it. The jury did not even see. They did not even see, Raymond. What can you do with

How do you gauge normal? To do so, you'd have to know how everybody else lives.

Funny how you can take a thing like carpet for granted if you always had it and you figure you always will.

Just because I don't think normally doesn't mean I don't know normal thinking when I hear it.

I can't entirely explain why, but in that moment my life felt like a better place than it had been for as long as I could remember.

He wanted to explain that a scared part of him was still scared. That no matter how many times Dad explained that Buddy was safe, the scared part of him never heard, or never believed. But he had no idea how to frame such a thought with words.

Not as sure as you are. But it's okay. Either way it's okay. I like the world with all its faults. It was an honor to have a place in it. But going where Nan went is an appealing option, too. Whatever

She said it was very selfish of me to base my participation in the world on whether the world was pleasing me at the moment. She said of course the world can be cruel; this is a given. She asked if I knew what she would have sacrificed to be ninety-two.

People need help with perspective sometimes. If they're all alone in their own head, they can lose perspective. Sometimes you need to use somebody else like a mirror.

Nothing is more dangerous than words. Words can kill your soul.

Life gives us nothing outright.

People think complaining about a bad thing will make them feel better. But it just stokes it. It keeps it alive. It's like feeding it. This is why I never liked the expression pet peeve. Why keep a peeve as a pet? Why give it a dish of water and a nice spot to lie down in the corner? It's just choosing to be peeved.

As long as you think you know everything, nothing changes.

OK. So your story sadder'n mine. OK. But my story still my story. I mean…even if somebody else got it worse. What I got was bad enough. You know?

Suddenly I wanted to think like everyone else seemed to think. That military retaliation was honorable and just. But that's only wanting. War is always pointless.

The thing I'll always remember best about that time is not how quickly our family fell apart. The memorable bit was when I first looked back at how we'd convinced ourselves we'd ever been together in the first place.