Quotes About Perception

As they walked up the hill, their breaths puffing into the crisp air, Émile glanced at Armand, Henri walking at his side. Did he seem better? Was he getting better? Émile thought so, but he also knew it was the internal injuries that did the most damage. The worst was always hidden.

As a child, Billy had held his grandfather's calloused hand, and together they'd walked through the forest, the old man touching the trees and describing their character. From him, young Billy learned that trees had feelings and personalities of their own.

His magical thinking allowed him to be surprised that when such a good soul dies it isn't remarked. The bells of the church didn't set themselves off. The mice and deer didn't cry out. The earth didn't shudder. It should have.

Just because it's the truth doesn't make it any less insulting.

What is essential is invisible to the

The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.

the essential goodness of people, it's failing to see it.

I see you know your art. Yes. Not many realize that it's the play of light and dark, of subtleties and extremes—

One of Gilbert's favorite quotes was from Henry David Thoreau. The question is not what you look at, but what you see.

Gracie might, or might not, be a dog. The smart money was now on guinea pig, with hedgehog a close second.

Gamache in anger. "He knew that's

The mind is its own place, can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven,

Before laptops and BlackBerries and all the other tools that mistook information for knowledge.

It's a reminder that if someone's happy, maybe that's the only reality that matters.

I just sit where I'm put, composed of stone and wishful thinking: That the deity that kills for pleasure will also heal, He could, even now, from what felt like an impossible distance, see through the mullioned windows of the bistro to the thick forests, and the leaves that would already be changing. As everything eventually did.

Though the duck looked bleary. But then, ducks often did.

Don't believe everything you think. Chief Inspector Gamache wrote that on the board for the incoming cadets at the start of every year at the Sûreté academy, and it stayed there all year. At first the students in the class he taught laughed. It sounded clever but silly. Little by little most got it. And those who didn't did not progress further. That phrase was as powerful as any weapon they'd be handed.

Your statistics might be right—" "They are." "—but your conclusions are wrong.

first two were obvious.

The blindness you mention isn't believing in the essential goodness of people, it's failing to see it.

Often what seemed obvious was not a fact, or even the truth.

he understands," said Gamache quietly, as though

She was fierce because she was afraid. Of everything. The rest of the world saw a strong, noble lioness. He looked at his daughter and saw Bert Lahr, though he'd never tell her that. Or her husband.

How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes.