Quotes about Perception

Imagine if our negative feelings, or at least lots of them, turned out to be illusions, and we could dispel them by just contemplating them from a particular vantage point.

So if meditation did liberate you from obedience to these feelings, it would be, in a certain sense, dispelling an illusion—the illusion you implicitly subscribe to when you follow the feeling, the illusion that the rage, and for that matter the revenge it inspires, is fundamentally "good." It turns out the feeling isn't even good in the basic sense of self-interest.

The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here.

The devil ought not to be in our line of vision but in our shadow.

Other people's opinion of you does not have to become your reality.

Just look down the road and tell me if you can see either of them. I see nobody on the road. said Alice. I only wish I had such eyes,the King remarked in a fretful tone. To be able to see Nobody! And at such a distance too!

Then you should say what you mean, the March Hare went on. I do, Alice hastily replied; at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know. Not the same thing a bit! said the Hatter. You might just as well say that I see what I eat is the same thing as I eat what I see!

Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on: 'And how do you know that you're mad?' 'To begin with,' said the Cat, 'a dog's not mad. You grant that?' 'I suppose so,' said Alice. 'Well then,' the Cat went on, 'you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.' 'I call it purring, not growling,' said Alice.

Alice: This is impossible. The Mad Hatter: Only if you believe it is.

What a funny watch!' she remarked. 'It tells the day of the month, and doesn't tell what o'clock it is!' 'Why should it?' muttered the Hatter. 'Does YOUR watch tell you what year it is?' 'Of course not,' Alice replied very readily: 'but that's because it stays the same year for such a long time together.' 'Which is just the case with MINE,' said the Hatter.

So she sat on with closed eyes, and half believed herself in Wonderland, though she knew she had but to open them again, and all would change to dull reality.

When you are describing, A shape, or sound, or tint; Don't state the matter plainly, But put it in a hint; And learn to look at all things, With a sort of mental squint.