Quotes About Perspective

Misunderstandings are always caused by the inability of appreciating one another's point of view. This again is due to the ignorance of those concerned, not so much in their own, as in their mutual fields.

Cuando comprendes que toda opinión es una visión cargada de historia personal, empiezas a comprender que todo juicio es una confesión.

When everyone drowns and I'm the only one to escape, God is protecting me. When everyone else is saved and I'm the only one to drown, God is protecting me then too.

Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.

I say one thing, you write another, and those who read you understand still something else! I say: cross, death, kingdom of heaven, God...and what do you understand? Each of you attaches his own suffering, interests and desires to each of these sacred words, and my words disappear, my soul is lost. I can't stand it any longer!

While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.

To think things out properly and fairly, a fellow's got to be calm and old and toothless: When you're an old gaffer with no teeth, it's easy to say: 'Damn it, boys, you mustn't bite!' But, when you've got all thirty-two teeth...

Confucius says: 'Many seek happiness higher than man; others beneath him. But happiness is the same height as man.' That is true. So there must be a happiness to suit every man's stature.

It is impossible for me to remember how many days or weeks went by in this way. Time is round, and it rolls quickly.

The great difference between us is this: you believe you have found salvation, and believing this, you are saved; I believe that salvation doesn't exist, and believing this, I am saved.

Madness, Brother Masseo, is the salt which prevents good sense from rotting.

An old fisherman heard all this and shook his head. "This is what happens to those who don't get married," he said. "All they want to do is save the world, by hook or by crook. The sperm rises to their heads and attacks their brains. For God's sake, all of you: get married, let your forces loose on women and have children in order to calm yourselves!

Good god how much I have suffered, but serenely, because I understood that what I endured was nothing, just a caress compared to the world's boundless misfortune.

We sense happiness with difficulty while experiencing it. Only when it has passed and we look back do we suddenly comprehend, sometimes with astonishment, how happy we have been. I, however, on this Cretan shore, was experiencing happiness while being simultaneously aware of my happiness.

If you have faith, a splinter from an old door will become a holy relic. And if you have no faith the entire holy cross will become an old door.

Good Lord, just think what poor old God must go through also," he said with a laugh. "He certainly got himself in hot water when he created the world. The fish screams, Don't blind me, Lord; don't let me enter the nets! The fisherman screams, Blind the fish, Lord; make him enter the nets! Which one is God supposed to listen to? Sometimes he listens to the fish, sometimes to the fisherman—and that's the way the world goes round!

Mutluydum; biliyordum bunu. Bir mutluluÄŸu yaÅŸarken onu kavramam?z zordur; ancak o geçip de arkam?za bakt???m?z zaman, birdenbire biraz da hayranl?kla, ne kadar mutlu olduÄŸumuzu anlar?z. Ama ben, bu Girit k?y?s?nda mutluluÄŸu ya??yor, üstelik mutlu olduÄŸumu da biliyordum.

Zorba sighed. He lit a cigarette, took one or two puffs and then threw it away. My country, you say?… You believe all the rubbish your books tell you…? Well, I'm the one you should believe. So long as there are countries, man will stay like an animal, a ferocious animal… But I am delivered from all that, God be praised! It's finished for me! What about you?

Everyman has his folly, but the greatest folly of all, in my view, is not to have one.

He answered me: "Forgive me for saying this, Boss, but you are a pen pusher. You poor creep, you had the chance of a lifetime to see a beautiful green stone, and you didn't see it. By God, sometimes when I have no work to do, I sit down and ask myself, 'Is there a hell or isn't there?' But yesterday, when I received your letter, I said to myself, 'There sure is a hell for certain pen pushers!'

I lack nothing, I tell you!" "Nothing?" I asked. "Not even heaven?" He lowered his head and was silent. But after a moment: "Heaven is too high for me. The earth is good, exceptionally good–and near me!" "Nothing is nearer to us than heaven. The earth is beneath our feet and we tread upon it, but heaven is within us.

I say one thing, you write another, and those who read you understand still something else!

As far as I can see, your lordship's never been hungry, never killed, never stolen. what ever can you know of the world? You've got an innocent's brain and you skin's never felt the sun

Happiness always takes us by surprise, or perhaps it is not happiness. It is one's unhappiness diminished in size.