Quotes About Perception

All the sounds of the house, from the creak of the back stair under an early-rising maid's foot, to the drumming rain on the roofslates, were sounds he had heard a thousand times before; heard so often, he didn't hear them anymore. I did.

If ever you find yourself in the midst of paradox, you can be sure you stand on the edge of truth," his adoptive father had told him once. "You may not know what it is, mind," he'd added with a smile. "But it's there.

people will treat with disdain such phenomena as are proved by the evidence of the senses, and commonly experienced—while they will defend to the death the reality of a phenomenon which they have neither seen nor experienced.

the power and the danger of magic lie in the people who believe it.

I found myself thinking that I had always heretofore assumed that the tendency of eighteenth-century ladies to swoon was due to tight stays; now I rather thought it might be due to the idiocy of eighteenth-century men.

We believe the light of Christ is present in all men—though in some cases, perceiving it is somewhat difficult

We look in the mirror and see the shades of other faces looking back through the years; we see the shape of memory, standing solid in an empty doorway.

You do know that women aren't rational, don't you?" "I do. Neither are men." "Well, you have a point

ran a hand softly down my back. "Mmm. Oh, nothing, really. Just, when I saw that chap outside, it occurred to me he might be"—he hesitated, tightening his hold

It was a blur," people say. What they really mean is the impossibility of anyone truly entering such an experience from outside, the futility of explanation.

And here I thought I married you because ye had a fair face and a fine fat arse. To think you've a brain as well!

It's always better if they see. Then they don't imagine things. So I didn't imagine, I remembered.

people so often seemed not only willing but eager to believe the worst—and the worse, the better.

It wasn't that Friends thought that the Lord spoke only to them; it was only that they weren't sure other folk listened very often.

He could feel the shape of his eyeballs beneath his lids, round and hot, tasty bits of jelly rolling restless to and fro, looking vainly for oblivion, while the rising sun turned his lids a dark and bloody red.

After all, it's human nature to put the best face on things when you know someone will read what you've written. People tend to concentrate on the things they think important, and often enough, they tidy it up a bit for public consumption.

astutely observes that a Man's sense of

the important things ye do by touch, aye?

Frenchman wouldn't seem so dangerous to them. Perhaps. He blinked hard to clear his vision, and was opening his mouth

Thee is a rooster, William," Rachel said mournfully. "I saw this in thee before, but now I know it for certain." "A rooster," he repeated coldly, brushing dirt from his sleeve. "Indeed. A vain, crowing, gaudy sort of fellow—that's what you think me?

difference between an American and an Englishman. An Englishman thinks a hundred miles is a long way; an American thinks a hundred years is a long time.

more than he did himself. But he said, no, I must have it, that knowing what o'clock it is gives ye the illusion that ye have some control over your circumstances.

If ever I'd seen a confirmed bachelor, I would

The humming noise disturbed him. It wasn't in his ears but in his body—under his skin, in his bones. It made the long bones of his arms and legs thrum like plucked strings, and itched in his blood, making him want constantly to scratch. Fiona couldn't hear it; he'd asked, to be sure she was safe before letting her help him. He