Quotes About Perspective

I remember a quote from Einstein: "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." I've always felt that made sense, but, like most of us, I also believe that I should be able to think my way out of my problem by going over and over how I thought myself into it.

Well, sure, the vows say "in sickness and health" and "for better or worse" and all that, but that's kind of like clicking okay to the terms and conditions when you download an app or sign up for a credit card. You don't think any of that is going to apply to you.

I told Greenwald that I didn't consider these factors when I was ten years younger and waiting for just the right guy to pop into my life. It seemed reasonable to think that the longer I searched, the better the guy I'd end up with. But it's faulty logic, she said: The longer you wait, the less likely you are to find someone better than you've already met.

You are not the best person to talk to you about you right now.

When working with couples on empathy, often I'll say, "Before you speak, ask yourself, What is this going to feel like to the person I'm speaking to? " I make a mental note to share this with John one day.

Because therapists know that at first, each patient is simply a snapshot, a person captured in a particular moment. It's like a photo of you taken from an unfortunate angle and with a sour expression on your face. There might also be a photo in which you're glowing, caught opening a present or mid-laugh with a lover. Both are you in that fraction of time, and neither is you in your entirety.

You're not choosing the pain, but you're choosing the suffering

Therapists will be supportive, but our support is for your growth, not for your low opinion of your partner.

Why Italian? In order to develop another pair of eyes, in order to experiment with weakness

I'm one of those people who other people like but never remember. I think most of the world is probably like me. Until recently nothing about me was outstanding, and then my mother got cancer. It's a disease people like to talk about, so I'm more popular now. And when I flip through magazines, I read the breast cancer articles first, even before the numerology column.

why did you tell me to look on the 'other' table instead of 'that' table?

I don't need liquor to color the world

There are certain things in life for which we can never be prepared.

I did not very often consider the reasons my father died. I didn't believe his life was taken to instill some larger meaning in my character, or make me a better person. I preferred to believe that a person might be taken for no reason other than the random winds of chance, the same forces that could create a brilliant sky after a terrible storm.

My left brain is doing the best job it can with the information it has to work with. I need to remember, however, that there are enormous gaps between what I know and what I think I know.

Most of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, but we are actually feeling creatures that think.

I need to remember, however, that there are enormous gaps between what I know and what I think I know. I learned that I need to be very wary of my storyteller's potential for stirring up drama and trauma.

Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?

My favorite definition of fear is "False Expectations Appearing Real

All that is to say that the dark is our friend, and this is precisely what it was invented for. Most of us spend most of our time in the daylight, however, so it behooves us to get to the gym.

One Half of the World does not know how the other Half lives," Franklin once wrote. His sister is his other Half.

Grief made you selfish; engulfed as you were in your own pain, it was hard to remember the others were suffering too.

Life isn't fair. You know it isn't, said Lucas. I do know that, but it's still not fair that it isn't fair.

We used to all come outside when the streetlights came on and prowl the neighborhood in a pack, a herd of kids on banana-seat bikes and minibikes. The grown-ups looked so silly framed in their living-room and kitchen windows. They complained about their days and sighed deep sighs of depression and loss. They talked about how spoiled and lucky children were these days. We will never be that way, we said, we will never say those things.