Quotes About Perception

It's not that photography recaptures the world you have been in; more that it creates a new one: photographs are like Post-It Notes reminding us of the deep architectonic forms of space and thought.

It's just that you reach a point where metaphors become indistinguishable from the things they represent. And the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. And it feels like being born

It was all about eyes, the truth.

At the time I perceived most religious men, particularly the pastors with all their talk about love, faith and relationship, as effeminate.

Linder looks less like a politician than a member of a fascistically inclined boy band.

To change man, the audience by which he judges himself must be changed. A man is defined by his audience: by the people, institutions, authors, magazines, movie heroes, philosophers by whom he pictures himself being cheered and booed.

He who awakens is conscious in Dreamland.

When you're in Los Angeles, nobody bats an eye, they're so used to seeing actors, they just act really cool.

One day you will hear the sound of time rustling as it slips through your fingers like sand.

Proprio non so come dirlo in modo che suoni veritiero: di verità ne esistono sempre come minimo due.

Where there's black, even grey looks white.

We're not given the chance to choose absolute truth. Truth's always two-faced. The only thing we have is the right to reject the lie we find most repugnant.

How easily the truth is lost, and how persistent lies are.

Generally speaking, we can and should say everything. We just have to choose the right time, otherwise the truth can be worse than a lie.

Abuse counselors say of the abusive client: "When he looks at himself in the morning and sees his dirty face, he sets about washing the mirror.

I am often asked whether physical aggression by women toward men, such as a slap in the face, is abuse. The answer is: "It depends." Men typically experience women's shoves or slaps as annoying and infuriating rather than intimidating, so the long-term emotional effects are less damaging. It is rare to find a man who has gradually lost his freedom or self-esteem because of a woman's aggressiveness.

Why does Wendell think that Aysha is the one who has been doing all the yelling and complaining? Because in his mind she's supposed to be listening, not talking. If she expresses herself at all, that's too much.

For many abusive men, pornography has shaped their sexuality since they were teenagers or even younger. It has helped to form their view of what women are like and what they ought to be. When a graduate of what I call "The Pornography School of Sexuality" discovers, for example, that his partner does not find a slap in the face arousing, he thinks that's evidence of something sexually wrong with her.

If the man is abusive, of course he is going to deny it, partly to protect himself and partly because his perceptions are distorted. If he were ready to accept responsibility for his actions in relationships, he wouldn't be abusive.

A man's beliefs about the effects of the substance will largely be borne out. If he believes that alcohol can make him aggressive, it will, as research has shown. On the other hand, if he doesn't attribute violence-causing powers to substances, he is unlikely to become aggressive even when severely intoxicated.

Trust your memory. Trust your best thinking. Trust your sense of what is real.

Your negative feelings about yourself do not reflect reality.

The first time you buy a house you see how pretty the paint is and buy it. The second time you look to see if the basement has termites. It's the same with men.

On our garden walks Mama always used to tell me, 'Angels live in gardens, Darcy.' 'Where?' I would ask, looking around for the white-winged beings I saw drawn on my Sunday school papers. 'Close your eyes and breathe deep.' 'All is smell is flowers, Mama,' I would say. 'Not so. That's the breath of the angels. And the stirrings you hear in the leaves are their wings brushing past.