Quotes about Perception

The face she lifted to her dancers was the same which, when she saw him, always looked like a window that has caught the sunset. He even noticed two or three gestures which, in his fatuity, he had thought she kept for him: a way of throwing her head back when she was amused, as if to taste her laugh before she let it out, and a trick of sinking her lids slowly when anything charmed or moved her.

It's more real to me here than if I went up, he suddenly heard himself say; and the fear lest that last shadow of reality should lose its edge kept him rooted to his seat as the minutes succeeded each other.

It is our ignorance of things that causes all our admiration and chiefly excites our passions.

Few things discover the state of the arts amongst people more certainly than the presents that are made to them by foreigners.

Have you ever thought about Jesus' physical appearance? If you think about the paintings, he was a relatively handsome Dutchman. But if you think about a prophetic description, "he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2). To put it diplomatically, he didn't look like much, and sleepless nights filled with prayer vigils probably didn't help.

The language of shame is extreme. Hear it enough and you believe it. You are told you are disgusting and unclean, and eventually you believe you are.

Shamed people rarely take stands against injustice. Such a stand would mean they would have to go public, which would only double the shame. Instead, once we are shamed, most of us try to make sense of it by believing we are getting what we deserve. So why would we protest?

Anger takes everything personally, as if everything is an intentional act to make your life miserable.

If you feel ugly you will experience shame. The two are bound together.

You believe lies about God. Guaranteed. You think he can't see all things; you think he doesn't care; you think that he reluctantly forgives; you think that he is far away; you think that he loves many people but not you. Don't assume that you know him. Read the Gospels.

Why do you think Adam and Eve were concerned about uncovered genitals, but not bare arms, legs, noses, or ears?

Who in your life is one step ahead of you in knowing people? What does that person do?