Quotes About Perspective

What I feel to be good – is good. What I feel to be bad – is bad.

Arte es cualquier cosa que la gente crea que es arte, y la belleza está en los ojos del espectador».

Most likely, both the gossip theory and the there-is-a-lion-near-the-river theory are valid.

We tend to believe that if we could just change our workplace, get married, finish writing that novel, buy a new car or repay the mortgage, we would be on top of the world. Yet when we get what we desire we don't seem to be any happier. Buying cars and writing novels do not change our biochemistry. They can startle it for a fleeting moment, but it is soon back to its set point.

We cannot explain the choices that history makes, but we can say something very important about them: history's choices are not made for the benefit of humans. There

Diogenes, the Greek philosopher who founded the Cynical school, lived in a barrel. When Alexander the Great once visited Diogenes as he was relaxing in the sun, and asked if there were anything he might do for him, the Cynic answered the all-powerful conqueror, 'Yes, there is something you can do for me. Please move a little to the side. You are blocking the sunlight.' This

This was easiest, since Old Persian was not that different from modern Persian, which Rawlinson knew well. An understanding of the Old Persian section gave him the key he needed to unlock the secrets of the Elamite and Babylonian sections. The great door swung open, and out came a rush of ancient but lively voices – the bustle of Sumerian bazaars, the proclamations of Assyrian kings, the arguments of Babylonian bureaucrats.

Followers of every religion are convinced that theirs alone is true. Perhaps the followers of one religion are correct.

Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural.

Just as the spectrums of light and sound are far broader than what we humans can see and hear, so the spectrum of mental states is far larger than what the average human perceives.

In the year 2000, wars caused the deaths of 310,000 individuals, and violent crime killed another 520,000. Each and every victim is a world destroyed, a family ruined, friends and relatives scarred for life. Yet from a macro perspective these 830,000 victims comprised only 1.5 per cent of the 56 million people who died in 2000. That year 1.26 million people died in car accidents (2.25 per cent of total mortality) and 815,000 people committed suicide (1.45 per cent).4

Can you name a single great work of art which is not about conflict?

zipper's operation. Most people had no idea.2 This is what Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach have termed "the knowledge illusion." We think we know a lot, even though individually we know very little, because we treat knowledge in the minds of others as if it were our own.

Fiction isn't bad. It is vital.

Yet over decades and centuries the web of meaning unravels and a new web is spun in its place. To study history means to watch the spinning and unravelling of these webs, and to realise that what seems to people in one age the most important thing in life becomes utterly meaningless to their descendants.

desde el punto de vista del rebaño, y no del pastor, es difícil evitar la impresión de que para la inmensa mayoría de los animales domésticos la revolución agrícola fue una catástrofe terrible. Su «éxito» evolutivo carece de importancia. Un rinoceronte salvaje que se halle al borde de la extinción está probablemente más satisfecho que un ternero que pasa su corta vida dentro de una caja minúscula, y que es engordado para producir jugosos bistecs.

As strangeness becomes the new normal, your past experiences, as well as the past experiences of the whole of humanity, will become less reliable guides.

Reaching an agreement can be quite difficult, because while you like science-fiction thrillers, Jack prefers romantic comedies, and Jill votes for artsy French films.

Bereitwillig glaubten die Menschen an Engel und Elfen, aber dass ein winziger Floh oder ein einziger Tropfen Wasser eine ganze Armada tödlicher Jäger enthielt, konnten sie sich nicht vorstellen.

Since large-scale human cooperation is based on myths, the way people cooperate can be altered by changing the myths – by telling different stories. Under the right circumstances myths can change rapidly.

We don't become satisfied by leading a peaceful and prosperous existence. Rather, we become satisfied when reality matches our expectations. The bad news is that as conditions improve, expectations balloon. Dramatic improvements in conditions, as humankind has experienced in recent decades, translate into greater expectations rather than greater contentment.

Rather, happiness consists in seeing one's life in its entirety as meaningful and worthwhile.

Yuval Noah Harari

Así es como se desarrolla la historia. La gente teje una red de sentido, cree en ella con todo su corazón, pero más pronto o más tarde la red se desenmaraña, y cuando miramos atrás, no podemos entender cómo nadie pudo haberla tomado en serio.