Quotes About Perspective

When you see a Gauguin, you think, This man is living in a dream world. When you see a van Gogh, you think, This dream world is living in a man.

The French believe that all errors are distant, someone else's fault. Americans believe that there is no distance, no difference, and therefore that there are no errors, that any troubles are simple misunderstandings, consequent on your not yet having spoken English loudly enough.

Dissenting opinions are useful, even when they are wrong.

Argue like you're right and listen like you're wrong. ?

We often favor feeling right, over being right.

Minority viewpoints are important, not because they tend to prevail but because they stimulate divergent attention and thought, " finds Berkeley psychologist Charlan Nemeth, one of the world's leading experts on group decisions. "As a result, even when they are wrong they contribute to the detection of novel solutions and decisions that, on balance, are qualitatively better". Dissenting opinions are useful even when they're wrong.

Gaining insight and perspective is not about the number of years you've lived. It's about the number of lessons you've learned.

Attachment. That's what keeps us from recognizing when our opinions are off the mark and rethinking them. To unlock the joy of being wrong, we need to detach. I've learned that two kinds of detachment are especially useful: detaching your present from your past and detaching your opinions from your identity.

Knowledge is best sought from experts, but creativity and wisdom can come from anywhere.

The mark of a lifelong learner is recognizing that you can learn something from everyone you meet. Knowledge is best sought from experts. Wisdom can come from anywhere.

There are always multiple paths to the same end, and the same starting point can be a path to many different ends. We should be careful to avoid getting too attached to a particular route or even a particular destination. There isn't one definition of success or one track to happiness.

We listen to views that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard.

The human authors and editors of the Old Testament brought their own experiences and presuppositions to the task of writing. We don't often think about this when we read the Bible.

Suffering can either destroy us, or it can add meaning to our life.

It's easy to make too much of fathers, I want to say. A

the simplest way to block out the strangeness of time passing before your eyes is to fix it in place, to edit it down to monuments or potted plants.

For once, there was nothing to be disappointed in. Which left me with just the feeling of the disappointment itself.

What he had said to me a moment ago was true. I hadn't been listening to him, not for years. I'd wanted him to be better for so long that I had stopped hearing him tell me he was sick. For the first time I saw him now as a man, not a member of a family. A separate person, who had been trying as hard as he could for most of his life simply to get by.

With children, everything's already happening and then over with. It happens while you're trying to keep up and gone by the time you arrive at a view of things.

I do not agree with you that England and America are the two great humanitarian powers. . . . [They are] materialistic first and humanitarian only a century after.

She was a believer, you know," the Captain said. "My wife. She thought socialism was the only thing that would make us strong again. There would be a difficult period, she always said, some sacrifices. And then things would be better. I didn't think I would miss that, you know. I didn't realize how much I needed someone to keep telling me why.

Stories are factual...If a man and his story are in conflict it is the man who must change.....In America it is the man who matters not the story.

And what was wrong with my memory? How come I didn't recollect how I spent these painful days, and why was I okay with the fact that I couldn't recall them? I preferred it this way, didn't I? Compared to forgetting, did living really stand a chance?

the sky. Finally, he looked down at them. "They're in space together," he said. "They're supposed to be our enemies, but they're up there laughing and screwing around." He lowered the directional and looked at Jun Do. "You were wrong," he said. "You were wrong—they are doing it for peace and fucking brotherhood.