Quotes about Perception

Remember, to believe something is to act as if it is so. To believe that two plus two equals four is to behave accordingly when trying to find out how many dollars or apples are in the house. The advantage of believing it is not that we can pass tests in arithmetic; it is that we can deal much more successfully with reality. Just try dealing with it as if two plus two equaled six.

The damage done to our practical faith in Christ and in his government-at-hand by confusing heaven with a place in distant or outer space, or even beyond space, is incalculable. Of course God is there too. But instead of heaven and God also being always present with us, as Jesus shows them to be, we invariably take them to be located far away and, most likely, at a much later time—not here and not now. And we should then be surprised to feel ourselves alone?

In feelings we really know that something is "there," and solidly so. But what it is and why it is remains obscure—though hauntingly present.

Anthropologists observe that the world occupied by a human being comprises not only the surrounding land, water, sky, plant and animal life, human beings and works of human hands, but also a "symbolic reality," which is superimposed upon material reality.

Poetry reaches to the realm beyond the world of sight and sound to reveal what our senses long to see and hear. It is the language not so much of the sublime, but of the truly real.

The first thing men notice about a woman is her eyes. Then, when her eyes aren't looking, they notice her breasts.

Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.

Most of the images of reality on which we base our actions are really based on vicarious experience.

The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened.

Your age doesn't define your maturity; your grades don't define your ability; and what people say about you doesn't define who you are.

When you're younger, you think of your age in fractions. 4 1/2, 5 1/2. You don't hear 36 1/2. You become 2, you turn 40, you reach 50, you make it to 60. By now you're going so fast you hit 70!

I don't know what the big deal is about old age. Old people who shine from the inside look 10 to 20 years younger.