Perspective Quotes

“I think timing is better left up to God to decide then religious leaders. I once met a man that brought his wife flowers in the hospital. They held hands, kissed and were as affectionate as any cute couple could be. They were both in their eighties. I asked them how long they were married. I expected them to tell me fifty years or longer. To my surprise, they said only five years. He then began to explain to me that he was married thirty years to someone that didn’t love him, and then he remarried a second time only to have his second wife die of cancer, two years later. I looked at my patient (his wife) sitting in the wheelchair next to him smiling. She added that she had been widowed two times. Both of her marriages lasted fifteen years. I was curious, so I asked them why they would even bother pursuing love again at their age. He looked at me with astonishment and said, “Do you really think that you stop looking for a soulmate at our age? Do you honestly believe that God would stop caring about how much I needed it still, just because I am nearing the end of my life? No, he left the best for last. I have lived through hell, but if I only get five years of happiness with this woman then it was worth the years of struggle I have been through.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“God is up to something, but you will never know unless you figure out the difference between who is the messenger carrying your future and who is the person holding you back.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Someone experiencing the stages of grief is rarely aware of how his behavior might appear to others. Grief often produces a “zoom lens effect,” in which the focus is entirely on oneself, to the exclusion of external considerations.”
― Sol Luckman, Snooze: A Story of Awakening

“And I understand now, maybe not completely, but more, that in times of overwhelming joy, immobile sadness, hysterical laughter, absolute fear, and sometimes just perfect quiet there is Life. Real Life. And it really is that simple. I take my gift now. I go live.”
― Dito Montiel, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

“When Gregory says, ‘Are they guilty?’ he means, ‘Did they do it?’ But when he says, ‘Are they guilty?’ he means, ‘Did the court find them so?’ The lawyer’s world is entire unto itself, the human pared away.”
― Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies

“...and that there were many things grow-ups did which couldn't properly be judged by young people until the young people were grown-ups themselves...”
― Nick Joaquín, The Woman Who Had Two Navels

“Imagine a wall that's green on one side and red on the other. You stand on one side and only see green. I stand on the other side and only see red. We'll both be right about the color we see, even though we disagree on what color the wall is. Being able to realize that the other person has a valid point, even if you disagree with it, that's maturity.”
― Oliver Gaspirtz

“The historian, like everyone else, is forever trapped in the egocentric predicament, and 'presentism' is his original sin.”
― Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., The Cycles Of American History: Updated Edition―A Political Historian's Reflection on Two Centuries of Pragmatism vs Idealism

“The problem isn't a shortage of opportunities; it's a lack of perspective.”
― Tim Fargo

“Espionage is the world's second oldest profession.”
― Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History

“The idea that other perspectives exist may not be obvious to those who are in an emotional state of mind.”
― Nabil N. Jamal

“Just like salt makes sweet taste sweeter, trials make happy feel happier.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year

“History is the preceptor of prudence, not principles.”
― Edmund Burke

“Here march the eaters of earth,
the swallowers of rain.”
― J. Aleksandr Wootton, Forgetting: impressions from the millennial borderland

“My step-dad’s rendition of events was uncontested even by me and therefore, it became our truth. Truth I’d never be able to prove or change; truth that protected him from suspicion and penalty. Truth that I now knew was a lie.”
― J M Northup, A Prisoner Within

“...and that there were many things grown-ups did which couldn't properly be judged by young people until the young people were grown-ups themselves...”
― Nick Joaquín, The Woman Who Had Two Navels

“A major gap between many of the denominations stems from how people define some of the most basic terms, such as 'religion' itself.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“With improved historical records, and easier access to them, we actually have better reasons for hating one another, for anger and violence toward one another.”
― Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation

“The key is to put your outrage in a place where you can get it when you need to, but not have it bubble up so much, especially when you're asked to explain new ideas or explain what you observed two people who share none of your experiences.”
― Ron Suskind, A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League

“Our side has agents. Their side has spies.”
― Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History

“Life is something like a doctor's prescription: taken alone, and the ingredients might kill you; but properly blended, they bring healing.”
― Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Satisfied (Ecclesiastes): Looking for the Answer to the Meaning of Life

“On the Rules of Perspective
A bad trick. Mistake. Dishonesty. These are the views of Braque. Why? Braque rejected perspective. Why? Someone who spends his life drawing profiles will end up believing that man has one eye, Braque felt. Braque wanted to take full possession of objects. He said as much in published interviews. Watching the small shiny planes of the landscape recede out of his grasp filled Braque with loss so he smashed them. Nature morte, said Braque.”
― Anne Carson, Plainwater: Essays and Poetry

“…wondering, not for the first time, if there was a kind of dark bliss built into dementia: an immunity from death and abandonment, a way of fixing a point in time so that nothing can change, nothing can be rewritten, no one can leave.”
― Jonathan Miles, Want Not

“Mujizat gampang terlihat dari sudut pandang takhayul.
Miracles are easily seen from superstitious perspective.”
― Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity

“The only people who really think they have seen something new are those whose experience is limited or whose vision can't penetrate beneath the surface of things. Because something is recent, they think it is new; they mistake now the for originality.”
― Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Satisfied (Ecclesiastes): Looking for the Answer to the Meaning of Life

“You know what feels good to most of us when these obstacles, stresses and concerns consume us? Eating a dozen, warm chocolate chip cookies.

Sure, there's always a time for chocolate chip cookies, but they aren't a solution to our problems. Neither is skipping the gym. Abandoning yet another weight loss attempt because life got too hard shouldn't be an option. It's no doubt annoying to have to count calories and keep burning calories when the world is going to hell around us, but it's important to keep perspective if you're actually going to be successful in losing weight. The perspective is that even through the pain and discomfort from a death, move, job loss, or general stress might last weeks, months, or even years, it is all temporary. Good health is, too.”
― Shawn Weeks, 344 Pounds: How I Lost 125 Pounds By Counting Calories

“No wonder the sky had to be blotted out by advertisements. The stars drowned with lights. If everyone could see beyond Coalition horizons, perhaps they'd see the titans of humanity for what they were: tiny creatures, smaller than insects, and in the scale of things, every bit as insignificant.”
― S. J. Kincaid

“The worst bullies you will ever encounter in your life are your own thoughts.”
― Bryant H. McGill

“I will never listen to ocean waves or view a beautiful sunset in quite the same way again. That is perhaps the greatest gift one can gain by delving into calculus: It is a whole new way of looking at the world, accessible only through the realm of mathematics.”
― Jennifer Ouellette, The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

“Peter Aykroyd has a wonderful eye for the telling detail, cameos that stick in the mind. Thse are the little touches that make it past come alive.”
― J.J. Scarisbrick