Quotes About Perspective

Guy in prison says to me once, he says, 'Happiness comes in moments, and then it's gone until the next time. Could be years. But sadness'"—Val winked—"'sadness settles in.

He gave me the same shrug and I saw that his mind wasn't for the changing. People like Mulkern are used to creating the facts on their own, then letting the rest of us in.

Non sono pazza. Non lo sono. Certo, cos'altro direbbe una pazza? E' questo l'aspetto geniale della situazione. L'aspetto kafkiano. Se non sei pazza ma la gente ha detto a tutti che lo sei, allora qualsiasi affermazione contraria da parte tua non farà che rafforzare quella tesi. Capisce cosa intendo?

The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they've been in.

Nigel Barton:Everyone says 'Up at Oxford'. You come 'down' when you've finished there. Harry Barton: Well, what's this then? Does bloody Oxford move up and down the bloody map then?

Most people wait until tragedy strikes before thinking about how to incorporate tragedy into their life.

I often wonder if I am entitled to be as happy as I am, given the amount of suffering in the world.

Without God, right and wrong are just personal beliefs. Personal opinions. I think shoplifting is okay, you don't.

Without a philosophy of life, we do not know how to react to what life deals us. Our happiness bounces up and down, determined by the day's events and the immediate emotions they elicit rather than by sober reflection. Without being able to place events into perspective—which comes from having a philosophy of life—we are at the mercy of events. Our ship has no destination and no compass.

The world's thinking is morally confused because it is informed by the morally confused.

Gratitude takes effort; resentment is effortless.

We determine how much we will allow something to make us unhappy. That we can determine our emotional response to events is hard for many people to acknowledge. Most people think that events make them unhappy, that their happiness level is essentially dictated by what happens to them. But this is untrue.

A rabbi challenged his followers one day: "Where does God exist?" Puzzled by what almost seemed to be a heretical question, they answered: "God exists everywhere." "No," the rabbi responded: "God exists wherever man lets Him in.

The only happy people I know are people I don't know well.

instead of allowing the enormity of the world's sufferings to make me unhappy, I have allowed it to increase the depth of my gratitude for the blessed life that I have been allowed to lead. You can look at the amount of suffering in the world and become bitter (this world stinks), cynical (nothing matters, it's all just a roulette game), or hedonistic (with all this suffering, I'll rack up all the fun I can) – or you can be grateful for your blessings.

The next time you hear someone cite, 'Do not kill' when quoting the sixth commandment, gently but firmly explain that it actually says, 'Do not murder.

Virtually every news source lists the greater number of Palestinians killed in Arab-Israeli wars in order to depict the Israelis as guilty (of 'disproportionate response'). Had similar reporting taken place during World War II, the Western Allies would have been deemed the villains since Germany and Japan lost far more civilians than America or Britain.

In all my studies of happiness, one of the most significant conclusions I have drawn is that there is little correlation between the circumstances of people's lives and how happy they are. A moment's reflection should make this obvious to anyone. We know people who have a relatively easy life and who are essentially unhappy, and we know people who have suffered a great deal but maintained a relatively high level of happiness.

Also, the Israelites must have admired this man who chose to be one of them, when he could have led an utterly charmed life as an Egyptian prince.

Human beings tend to much more quickly forget the good others have done for them than the bad others have done to them. That's human nature.

Expectations Undermine Gratitude, the Key to Happiness

Very often the reason that people reach faulty conclusions is not their inability to reason; it is that they reason from faulty premises.

Expecting to get what we want is immaturity, not optimism, and adults cannot long sustain happiness while holding immature beliefs.

A poor man who can make himself satisfied with his portion will be happier than a wealthy man who does not allow himself to be satisfied with his portion