Quotes About Perspective

Old women who live long enough mainly count the bodies, whether we want to or not.

I knew people who dreamed all the time about going somewhere else, and they let that ruin their lives. When you are not allowed to do something, it often becomes very important.

But when you accept an intruder for too long, you sometimes invite him back later as a guest.

I suppose familiarity erodes even the most awful memories

It's the reward of the business, to look history in the eye and say, 'I know who you are. You can't fool me.

The world wold have been different - and better - if women had had an equal say in the development of literature, medicine, chemistry, physics, peace and economics. Better, not because women are better, but because they are more than half of humanity, representing more than half of what it means to be human.

If all we do is immerse ourselves in the stories of bad people doing bad things to each other and the planet, we will sink under the weight of a lopsided story.

They got me reading people like physicist David Bohm with new and passionate interest. He helped me because he turned the essential question upside down. I'd been asking, since everything in the world looks so separate, how can the connections that would seem to be required by this evidence be possible? On the other hand, Bohm was asking, since everything in the world is interconnected, how come everything looks so separate?

Zealous conviction is a dangerous substitute for an open mind.

Sometimes we also find a tendency to view everything that's indigenous as good and anything European-such as Spain-as evil. That view overlooks such historical realities as the Aztec empire's oppressive domination of other indigenous societies and its class system, which privileged priests and the military. That view also forgets Spain was not a typically European nation after 600 years of rule by the Moors, an Arab/Berber people from Africa.

aspiring journalist to Carl Kolchak) 'Andy knows I want to be a reporter. Like you' This took me by surprise. 'Sallie, my dear, nobody wants to be a reporter like me.

Other people's happiness is always a fascinating bore. It sucks the oxygen out of the room; you're left gasping, greedy, amazed by a deficit in yourself you hadn't ever noticed.

No creo que yo sea autista porque Dios pensara que mis padres necesitaban un desafío o que yo necesitara un desafío. Creo que es como si yo fuera un bebé y me cayera una piedra encima y me rompiera la pierna. La causa habrá sido un accidente. Dios no ha impedido el accidente, pero tampoco lo ha provocado.

Siempre pensaba que mis preguntas eran preguntas equivocadas porque nadie más las preguntaba. Tal vez no se les ocurrieron a nadie. Tal vez la oscuridad llegó allí primero. Tal vez yo soy la primera luz que toca un golfo de ignorancia. Tal vez mis preguntas importan.

But look at it this way. Anything is a commodity to someone. In a very large universe, your aunt Gracie's cannonballs may be someone else's favorite underwear.

I liked laser tag, but when I told her that in the first session she put down "violent tendencies.

Right now, let's get back to the other connections between what happened and the things you quit doing, quit enjoying.

As you read, keep in mind that no author will parallel your beliefs 100 percent, so you must learn to take from each one the ideas that work best for your family.

You know how your eyes can deceive you at times--how a group of shapes and shadows can take on a certain form and then shift into another? It wasn't really like that; there was no physical change in him, he was exactly the same as he'd always been. I knew every line of his long body and every curl on his disheveled black head. I'd just never seen him before. you know what I'm trying to say, don't you? The change is in the heart.

Emerson is a remarkable person, considering that he is a man. Which is not saying a great deal.

As our patient beasts plodded across the sand, I allowed Emerson to remain a few feet ahead, a position he much enjoys and seldom obtains. I could see by the arrogant set of his shoulders that he fancied himself in the role of gallant commander, leading his troops; and I saw no reason to point out that no man can possibly look impressive on donkey-back, particularly when his legs are so long he must hold them out at a forty-five degree angle to keep his feet from dragging on the ground.

My feelings are a fact, not a personal delusion. They are valid for me. What business have you got trying to tell me how I ought to feel?

Any man with a grain of sense knows that marriage is the only way, these days, to acquire a full-time maid who works twenty-five hours a day, with no time off and no pay except room and board. (p9)

It is setting a high value upon our opinions to roast men alive on account of them.' Nobody ever said a truer word.