Quotes about Perception

This dual sense of individual advancement and collective decline that I thought accounted for some of the most troubling attitudes I heard in some conversations.

People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves.

Once you became president, people's perceptions of you—even the perceptions of those who knew you best—were inevitably shaped by the media.

The thing about getting old, Bar," Toot had told me, "is that you're the same person inside." I remember her eyes studying me through her thick bifocals, as if to make sure I was paying attention. "You're trapped in this doggone contraption that starts falling apart. But it's still you. You understand?

People think it's all a game," she said. "They don't care that there are thousands of men with guns out there who believe every word that's being said.

The problem is, many of the people in need of saving are in churches, and at least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees the world the same way they do.

Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization.

Will you explain to me why people encourage delusional behaviour in children, and medicate it in adults?

Lies are infinite in number, and the truth so small and singular.

God is frightful, God is great--you pick. I choose this: God is in the details, the completely unnecessary miracles sometimes tossed up as stars to guide us. They are the promise of good fortune in a cloudless day, and the animals in the clouds; look hard enough, and you'll see them. Don't ask if they're real.

Most of them don't know what communism is, could not pick it out of a lineup. They only know what anticommunism is. The two are practically unrelated.

Be still, and the world is bound to turn herself inside out to entertain you. Everywhere you look, joyful noise is clanging to drown out quiet desperation.