Perspective Quotes

“I'm a scientist and I know what constitutes proof. But the reason I call myself by my childhood name is to remind myself that a scientist must also be absolutely like a child. If he sees a thing, he must say that he sees it, whether it was what he thought he was going to see or not. See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“The most beautiful women in the world are the ones that can stand as rivals on the battlefield of love, yet they can still see each other’s pain. They can set down their swords for only just a moment to acknowledge the beauty of the warrior that stands before them—the passion, the fearlessness and the relentless fire that never gives up. It is in this moment that we learn that it is not the man that sees the worth of the hearts torn by battle in his honor; it is the women who have suffered for so long. Two women that can “see” clearly the worth of the other, even while they grow weary from their wounds is the only kind of beauty that matters. For if there wasn’t two worthy opponents there would be no war in love.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“If life throws you a few bad notes or vibrations, don't let them interrupt or alter your song.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Every time I've done something that doesn't feel right, it's ended up not being right.”
― Mario Cuomo

“We are all glorified motion sensors.

Some things only become visible to us when they undergo change.

We take for granted all the constant, fixed things, and eventually stop paying any attention to them. At the same time we observe and obsess over small, fast-moving, ephemeral things of little value.

The trick to rediscovering constants is to stop and focus on the greater panorama around us. While everything else flits abut, the important things remain in place.

Their stillness appears as reverse motion to our perspective, as relativity resets our motion sensors. It reboots us, allowing us once again to perceive.

And now that we do see, suddenly we realize that those still things are not so motionless after all. They are simply gliding with slow individualistic grace against the backdrop of the immense universe.

And it takes a more sensitive motion instrument to track this.”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“Another thing is, people lose perspective. It is a cultural trait in America to think in terms of very short time periods. My advice is: learn history. Take responsibility for history. Recognise that sometimes things take a long time to change. If you look at your history in this country, you find that for most rights, people had to struggle. People in this era forget that and quite often think they are entitled, and are weary of struggling over any period of time”
― Winona LaDuke

“Beauty is in the heart of the beholder.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Cannot you conceive that another man may wish well to the world and struggle for its good on some other plan than precisely that which you have laid down?”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Smartass Disciple: Master, I’m going to change the whole world.
Master of Stupidity: It changes within you. It changes without you.”
― Toba Beta

“I'd proven to the world that maturity, experience, dedication, and ingenuity can make up for a little senescence. Muscle tightening is not the only thing that happens to our bodies over time. We gain knowledge, focus, and understanding, and those things can help us win.”
― Dara Torres, Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life

“I really tried, or so I thought, to avoid lying, but it seemed to me that they forced it on me by the difference in their vision of things, so that I was always transposing reality for them into something they could understand.”
― Mary McCarthy, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood

“My personal definition of confidence is to keep believing that the stars in the solar system are actually watching and applauding you.”
― Johnnie Dent Jr.

“One just has to look at the thing from a perspective that interests you personally.”
― Zadie Smith, White Teeth

“Life is no different than the weather. Not only is it unpredictable, but it shows us a new perspective of the world every day.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“The sense of perspective that interaction with multiple cultures gives you I find to be extremely valuable, because it allows you to see the structure of a country with greater clarity, and gives you a sense of mental independence.”
― Julian Assange

“Earth teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me resignation
as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me courage
as the tree which stands all alone.
Earth teach me regeneration
as the seed which rises in the spring.”
― William Alexander

“Your most important “want” should be the one you can control!”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Don’t know if it’s good or bad that a Google search on “Big Bang Theory” lists the sitcom before the origin of the Universe”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Isn't it lucky?”
― James Patterson

“A mountain still in the distance can appear as a molehill.”
― Howard Fast, April Morning

“The willingness to reexamine lifelong beliefs because of conflicting data takes enormous courage, and contrasts sharply with recent examples of public discourse in which our political, cultural, and religious leaders have fit data to preconceived theories.”
― Donal O'Shea, The Poincaré Conjecture: In Search of the Shape of the Universe

“Even though artists of all kinds claim to put their hearts and souls into their works, it will only confuse you, for example, if you try to discern a painter by his paintings. His masterpiece may be the master because of its iridescence; it may display a hundred different perspectives through his single face.”
― Criss Jami, Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality

“See the system. When you find yourself stuck in an oversimplified polarized conflict, a useful first step is to try to become more aware of the system as a whole: to provide more context to your understanding of the terrain in which the stakeholders are embedded, whether they are disputants, mediators, negotiators, lawyers, or other third parties. This can help you to see the forest and the trees; it is a critical step toward regaining some sense of accuracy, agency, possibility, and control in the situation.”
― Peter T. Coleman, The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts

“Not enough books focus on how a culture responds to radically new ideas or discovery. Especially in the biography genre, they tend to focus on all the sordid details in the life of the person who made the discovery. I find this path to be voyeuristic but not enlightening. Instead, I ask, After evolution was discovered, how did religion and society respond? After cities were electrified, how did daily life change? After the airplane could fly from one country to another, how did commerce or warfare change? After we walked on the Moon, how differently did we view Earth? My larger understanding of people, places and things derives primarily from stories surrounding questions such as those.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson

“...I had been with my father so constantly for so long that I knew less and less about him with every passing year. Every meaningful image was jumbled together with the countless moments of our daily life defeating my efforts to gain some perspective.”
― Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres

“Political judgment is the ability to hear the distant hoofbeats of the horse of history.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“I entrain myself (when I remember to)
by tuning in to higher frequencies
in the ether, in my soul, everywhere I go,
always accessible, always helpful
for obtaining a higher perspective
in a matter of minutes.”
― Jay Woodman

“Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it-- and have it repeated to us-- over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what's really important anymore.”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson

“Elasticity is a fundamental principle of perception,”
― Neal Shusterman, Challenger Deep

“May the Gods all preserve for me (until my present form ceases) this clear and sunlit view of external reality, the instinctive awareness of my unimportance, the cosiness of being small, and the solace of being able to imagine myself happy.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet