Quotes about Perception
Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.
— Henry David Thoreau
Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.
— Henry David Thoreau
We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.
— Henry David Thoreau
The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement.
— Henry David Thoreau
To a small man every greater is an exaggeration.
— Henry David Thoreau
Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!
— Henry David Thoreau
We are as much as we see. Faith is sight and knowledge. The hands only serve the eyes.
— Henry David Thoreau
What are the earth and all its interests beside the deep surmise which pierces and scatters them?
— Henry David Thoreau
One may discover a new side to his most intimate friend when for the first time he hears him speak in public. He will be stranger to him as he is more familiar to the audience. The longest intimacy could not foretell how he would behave then.
— Henry David Thoreau
We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed, and realize that there have been times when our friends' thoughts of us were of so pure and lofty a character that they passed over us like the winds of heaven unnoticed when they treated us not as what we were, but as what we aspired to be. -- from A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
— Henry David Thoreau
Intuition is the very force or activity of the soul in its experience through whatever has been the experience of the soul itself.
— Henry Reed
The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.
— Henry Ward Beecher