Quotes About Perspective

Any event once it has occurred can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian.

How can it be that there is no distinction between motion and rest? The key is to realize that whether a body is moving or not has no absolute meaning. Motion is defined only with respect to an observer, who can be moving or not. If you are moving past me at a steady rate, then the cup of coffee I perceive to be at rest on my table is moving with respect to you.

One way to unify things that appear different is to show that the apparent difference is due to the difference in the perspective of the observers. A distinction that was previously considered absolute becomes relative. This kind of unification is rare and represents the highest form of scientific creativity. When it is achieved, it radically alters our view of the world.

Quantum mechanics has to be expanded, to allow for many different descriptions, depending on who the observer is.

I don't think my films are going to get rid of racism or prejudice. I think the best thing my films can do is provoke discussion.

I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten.

I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain people, you're doing a good thing.

The Jews proposed the ridiculous story that the guards had fallen asleep. Obviously, they were grasping at straws. But the point is this: they started with the assumption that the tomb was vacant! Why? Because they knew it was!

Satan greets people in hell by saying: "You'll find that there's no right or wrong here—just what works for you.

For me, everyone I write of is real. I have little true say in what they want, what they do or end up as (or in). Their acts appall, enchant, disgust or astound me. Their ends fill me with retributive glee, or break my heart. I can only take credit (if I can even take credit for that) in reporting the scenario. This is not a disclaimer. Just a fact.

It's lovely. I hate it.

I tend not to analyse my work, though I'm frequently intrigued when other people take time to do so.

My wife tells me she doesn't care what I do when I'm away, as long as I'm not enjoying it.

When you're poor, you know nothing about the future, you know nothing about the world, nothing that goes on outside 300 yards around you.

What do you mean "Ewww"? How is my tuna breath worse than peanut butter?

My mother supported my every artistic ambition. I don't wonder why. I'm beyond grateful. But when I think of my grandparents barely surviving the war, I feel so pampered. What an indulgence to be an artist. So this is it, this is all I can offer, to the living and to the dead.

Let me say something about that word: miracle. For too long it's been used to characterize things or events that, though pleasant, are entirely normal. Peeping chicks at Easter time, spring generally, a clear sunrise after an overcast week--a miracle, people say, as if they've been educated from greeting cards.

Is there a single person on whom I can press belief? No sir. All I can do is say, Here's how it went. Here's what I saw. I've been there and am going back. Make of it what you will.

Good advice is a wise man's friend, of course; but sometimes it just flies on past, and all you can do is wave.

Why is it our failures only show us more clearly the people we are failing?

I've come to understand that there's always something positive, even in a negative situation.

There's never been an act done since the beginning, from a kid stealing candy to a dictator committing genocide, that the person doing it didn't think he was fully justified. That's a mental trick called rationalizing, and it's done the human race more harm than anything else you can name.

Whether it was the stimulus of the radio, or simply that he was growing up, or both, he saw everything about him in a new way, as though he had managed to get a little distance off so that his sight wasn't blurred by being too close.

The entire world wasn't after them. It only seemed that way.