Quotes About Perspective

Is it a good life or a bad one? The answer doesn't matter. It's the only life we have.

Il vaut mieux être optimiste, de toute façon, car les pessimistes souffrent à deux reprises : d'abord à l'avance, puis quand le malheur arrive.

People in exile are rich -- rich with the accumulated sum of their contradictory identities.

Tu avais commencé sous l'égide de Miranda à écrire des éloges du présent mais maintenant, son présent s'était rétréci jusqu'à n'être qu'un minuscule point de lumière, les ténèbres alentours te confondaient.

When you think about it, there's a whole novel behind the voice of a Haitian in Montreal, a German in Paris, a Laotian in Chicago...

Le roman est le genre humain par excellence .

The truth is that all of us have multiple identities -- if only because all of us were children once, then teenagers, and are these things no longer, yet are them still.

Les langues ne sont pas seulement des langues : ce sont aussi des world views, c'est à dire des façons de voir et de comprendre le monde. Il y a de l'intraduisible là-dedans... et si vous avez plus d'une world view... vous n'en avez, d'une certaine façon, aucune.

What separates history from myth is that history takes in the whole picture, whereas myth averts our eyes from the truth when it turns men into heroes and gods.

And so the great American saga, as taught, excludes the very pertinent fact that after the 1630s, less than half came to Massachusetts for religious reasons.

the great American saga, as taught, excludes the very pertinent fact that after the 1630s, less than half came to Massachusetts for religious reasons.

Unique among the American settlements, Georgia was not motivated by a desire for profit.

Hakluyt at least was more practical (and more Anglican) than Montaigne in his outlook on the aboriginals. He believed them neither dangerous nor innocent, but empty vessels waiting to be filled with Christian—and, no less, commercial—truths.

But it seems that the judging maybe they shouldn't at least see the practices all week long. That can taint the way they go into the judging and the outlook of what's going to happen, instead of just watching those four minutes and judging on those minutes alone.

You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader.

It was funny in a way, but only in the unhumorous way anything recent was funny. In another 80 years, maybe she would find it hilarious.

Lorsque nous omettons de voir la main de Dieu dans nos situations, ou lorsque nous nous révoltons contre sa volonté dans notre vie, nous devenons vulnérables à la dépression émotionnelle et spirituelle.

But the "best" lies are those that look the most like the Truth. The "newest" lies are the oldest ones.

If you don't like what you see, stop looking.

Patients with symptom neuroses feel on the side of the therapist in opposing a problematic part of the self. They rarely require a long period to develop a shared perspective. In contrast, those whose problems are complexly interwoven with their personality may easily feel alone and under attack.

I love children, especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away.

Life is sometimes sad and often dull, but there are currants in the cake, and here is one of them.

You've no idea how long life goes on and how many, many changes it brings. Young people seem to imagine that it's over in a flash, that they do this thing, or that thing, and then die, but I can assure you they are quite wrong.

Oh! How like a woman," Davey said. "Sex, my dear Sadie, is not a sovereign cure for everything, you know. I only wish it were.