Quotes About Perspective

W]hat matters is not the meaning of man's life in general. To look for the general meaning of man's life would be comparable to the question put to a chess player: "What is the best move?" There is no move at all, irrespective of the concrete situation of a special game. The same holds for human existence inasmuch as one can search only for the concrete meaning of personal existence, a meaning which changes from man to man, from day to day, from hour to hour.

Meaning is relative inasmuch as it is related to a specific person who is entangled in a specific situation. One could say that meaning differs in two respects: first, from man to man, and second, from day to day—indeed, from hour to hour.

Spiritualism is no less a one-sided world view than materialism. Monism, be it spiritual or material, does not so much disclose the alleged oneness of the world as it betrays the one-sidedness of its own view.

A person's suffering is similar to gas. If any amount of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill it completely. No matter how big the chamber. Suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the 'size' of human suffering is irrelevant. - Viktor Frankl for his analogy on human suffering and gas within a chamber.

Pleasure in itself cannot give our existence meaning; thus the lack of pleasure cannot take away meaning from life, which now seems obvious to us.

But the whole of life stands in the face of death, and if this man had been right then all our lives would be meaningless, were we only to strive for pleasure and nothing else – preferably the most pleasure and the highest degree of pleasure possible. Pleasure in itself cannot give our existence meaning; thus the lack of pleasure cannot take away meaning from life, which already seems obvious to us.

It was Kierkegaard who told the wise parable that the door to happiness always opens 'outwards', which means it closes itself precisely against the person who tries to push the door to happiness 'inwards', so to speak.

The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living.

It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.

el sufrimiento humano actúa como un gas en una cámara vacía; el gas se expande por completo y regularmente por todo el interior, con independencia de la capacidad del recipiente. Análogamente, cualquier sufrimiento, fuerte o débil, ocupa la conciencia y el alma entera del hombre. De donde se deduce que el «tamaño» del sufrimiento humano es absolutamente relativo. Y a la inversa, la cosa más menuda puede generar las mayores alegrías.

A man's suffering is similar to the behavior of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the 'size' of human suffering is absolutely relative.

We have absolutely no control over what happens to us in life but what we have paramount control over is how we respond to those events.

I am convinced that in the final analysis, there is no situation that does not contain within it the seed of a meaning.

Life is like being at dentist. You always think that the worst is yet to come, & yet it is over already.

Suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore, the size of human suffering is absolutely relative.

This apparently non-symbolic, objective character of technical images lead whoever looks at them to see them not as images but as windows

could send everyone in America to live under the dictatorship in Turkmenistan. Or to spend a little time in a New Delhi slum. Maybe they'd gain a little perspective about how good they have it. But I can't. So instead, they'll listen to politicians tell them how they're getting

There are no disasters. Just opportunities we haven't found yet.

The human species' ability to believe whatever it wanted was truly incredible.

Every year his world felt like it got a little smaller. Maybe that was just the way things went as people aged.

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit - Perhaps even these things will be good to remember one day

A joy it will be one day, perhaps, to remember even this.

Each of us finds the world of death fitted to himself

Indeed he seemed to her sometimes made differently from other people, born blind, deaf, and dumb, to the ordinary things, but to the extraordinary things, with an eye like an eagle's.