Quotes About Perspective

People have a right to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. Evidence must be located, not created, and opinions not backed by evidence cannot be given much weight.

People have a right to their own opinions, but not to their own facts.

Most scholars of education share this perspective, often referred to as "critical theory."16 Jonathan Kozol is of this school when he writes, "School is in business to produce reliable people."17 Paulo Freire of Brazil puts it this way: "It would be extremely naïve to expect the dominant classes to develop a type of education that would enable subordinate classes to perceive social injustices critically.

When you see a roadside marker, take in what it tells but also ask, how might this be wrong? One giveaway is the use of qualifying phrases introducing statements of fact, as in: "According to tradition..." or "According to the legislature..." Visitors can count on the rest of such sentences to be unsubstantiated.

If they are left-wing, they can subscribe to Daily Kos and Huffington Post. If they are right-wing, they can subscribe to Breitbart or the Drudge Report.6 Less often do they subscribe to outlets that provide several points of view. As a result, their thinking rarely gets challenged, so they become still less likely or able to assess information critically.

Memory says, "I did that." Pride replies, "I could not have done that." Eventually, memory yields. —FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE3

History is not a set of facts but a series of arguments, issues, and controversies.

Making the present seem inevitable robs history of all its life and much of its meaning.

No sensible Indian person," wrote George P. Horse Capture, "can celebrate the arrival of Columbus."90 Cherishing Columbus is a characteristic of white history, not American history.

How people think about the past is an important part of their consciousness.

Any telling of history requires choices as to what is included and what is left out and is therefore by definition an interpretation.

Such titles differ from the titles of all other textbooks students read in high school or college. Chemistry books, for example, are called Chemistry or Principles of Chemistry, not Triumph of the Molecule.

Are you going to tell kids that Thomas Jefferson didn't believe in Jesus? Not me!' a textbook editor exclaimed to me.

The history of a nation is, unfortunately, too easily written as the history of its dominant class. —KWAME NKRUMAH

A fight between grasshoppers is a joy to the crow. ~ Lesotho Proverb

The wealth which enslaves the owner isn't wealth. ~ Nigerian Proverb

In fact, to speak in earnest, I believe it adds a charm To spice the good a trifle with a little dust of harm

Better than a sharp stick in the eye.

We choose exile as a vantage point; from exile we look back on the rejected

When you're here, in a place like Bamiyan, with such a giant blue sky draped above you, other places seem so tiny.

It was far too absurd to die of a Tuesday

we all have own choice in life, I choose to be positive like a sunshine.

Whenever he had a problem, he found that being near the water put things in perspective.

Even though he wasn't always considerate of her, would another man be any different?