our third page of quotations on perspective

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

perspective - perspective 2 - perspective 4

One evening at Sagamore Hill, President Theodore Roosevelt's home
in New York, naturalist William Beebe walked outside with his host.
Roosevelt searched the star-filled night sky and, finding a small glow
below the corner of the constellation Pegasus, he said, "This is the spiral
galaxy Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It consists of
one hundred billion suns. It is one of a hundred billion galaxies."
Then Roosevelt looked at Beebe and said, "Now, I think
we are small enough! Let's go to bed."

unattributed

Despite all the doom and gloom that constantly assaults our senses, there is a way for us to ransom our lives and reclaim our futures: it consists in turning away from the world to recognize what in life makes us truly happy. For each of us, what that is will be different. But once we obtain this inner knowledge, we will possess the ability to transform our outer world. "You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself," the pilot and writer Beryl Markham reminds us. We cannot let this continue to occur.

Sarah Ban Breathnach

Merely looking at the world around us
is immensely different from seeing it.

Frederick Frank

What people most need now is to apply their
conversion skills to those things that are
essential for their survival. They need
to convert facts into logic, free will
into purpose, conscience into decision.
They need to convert historical experience
into a design for a sane world.

Norman Cousins

Today's world needs change, alteration, renewal, and corrections of errors. It needs new ideas, new approaches, methods, plans, procedures, and new ways of doing things. Maybe you should think of going -- literally or symbolically -- to a circus today, where you'll see stunts you never dreamed possible. The novelty and originality there may stimulate what you need more of in this life. Have the daring to take a flight for the idea you believe in!

Wilferd A. Peterson

Nothing is too great or too good to be true. Do not believe that we can
imagine things better than they are. In the long run, in the
ultimate outlook, in the eye of the Creator,
the possibilities of existence,
the possibilities open to us,
are beyond our imagination.

Joseph Wood Krutch

There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.

Thich Nhat Hanh

In this world there is nothing
softer or thinner than water.
But to compel the hard and
unyielding, it has no equal.
That the weak overcomes
the strong, that the hard gives
way to the gentle – This everyone
knows, yet no one acts accordingly.

Lao-Tzu

When we look for the good in others,
we discover the best in ourselves.

Martin Walsh

When you fall in a river, you’re no longer
a fisherman; you’re a swimmer.

Gene Hill

People go abroad to wonder at the heights of the mountains,
at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars;
and they pass by themselves without wondering.

St. Augustine

Invest in the “process” rather than the product. Process living neutralizes
the depleting and impoverishing effects of chronically living in anticipation. Even when
impossible goals occasionally are reached, satisfactions derived from them are
invariably disappointing unless the process has given ample satisfaction along the way.

Theodore Rubin

Recently my fingers have developed a prejudice against comparatives.
They all follow this pattern: a squirrel is smaller than a tree; a bird is
more musical than a tree. Each of us is the strongest one in his or her
own skin. Characteristics should take off their hats to one another,
instead of spitting in each other’s faces.

Bertolt Brecht

We’re all doing time. As soon as we get born, we find
ourselves assigned to one little body, one set of desires
and fears, one family, city, state, country, and planet.
Who can ever understand exactly why or how it comes down
as it does? The bottom line is, here we are. Whatever,
wherever we are, this is what we’ve got. It’s up
to us whether we do it as easy time or hard time.

Bo Lozoff

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. . . .
So why bother in the first place? Just this: what is above knows what is below,
but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees.
One descends, one sees no longer but one has seen. There is an art
to conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one
saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.

Rene Daumal

We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. The Talmud
We are not rich by what we possess but rather by what we can do without. Immanuel Kant	Things don’t change, but by and by our wishes change. Marcel Proust
When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting. St. Jerome

When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought
that they could always be worse. And when they are, we find hope
in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.

Malcolm S. Forbes

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There is no greater mistake in the world than the looking
upon every sort of nonsense as want of sense.

Leigh Hunt

The way out is through
the door you came in.

R.D. Laing

A moment’s insight is sometimes
worth a life’s experience.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

So much has been given to me; I have no time
to ponder over that which has been denied.

Helen Keller

Live every day to fulfill your personal mission. God has a reason for
whatever season you are living through right now. A season of loss
or blessing? A season of activity or hibernation? A season of growth
or incubation? You may think you’re on a detour, but God knows the
best way for you to reach your destination.

Barbara Johnson

I know what’s happening in this world—there are liars and cheats,
there’s prejudice, violence, greed, sickness—I know
what’s happening. I’m not going to let it deter me from
living my life, though. Look, I live in this world, and dammit,
I’m going to be cheerful and positive about living in this world.

Joseph Raymond

The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to everyone
the reflection of our own faces. Frown at it, and it
in turn will look sourly on you; laugh at it and with
it, and it is a jolly, kind companion.

William Makepeace Thackeray

If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection
to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question
of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at
our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher

There are no little events in life, those we think of no consequence
may be full of fate, and it is at our own risk if we neglect
the acquaintances and opportunities that seem to be casually
offered, and of small importance.

Amelia Barr

Everywhere I go, I find a poet has been there before me.

Sigmund Freud

Since we tend to see ourselves primarily in the light of our intentions,
which are invisible to others, while we see others mainly in the light
of their actions, which are all that’s visible to us, we have a situation
in which misunderstanding and injustice are the order of the day.

J.G. Bennett

We have moments of such clarity, of such appreciation of the incredible web
of interconnected events that carry us from breath to breath, day to day,
as long as we live--and the next moment we fret about how much we weigh.
Or who we didn't send a Valentine. Or who forgot to compliment the dinner. Or whatever.

Sylvia Boorstein

People are buffeted by circumstances so long as they believe themselves
to be creatures of outside conditions. But when they realize that they are
creative powers, and that they may command the hidden soil and seeds
of their being out of which circumstances grow, they then become the
rightful masters of themselves. . . . Circumstances do not make the person;
they reveal the person to him or herself.

James Allen

Whenever I hear a statement that seems to be complete
nonsense, I try to pay closer attention to the meaning behind
that statement, for I know that somewhere in there is a grain
of truth that may fly in the face of what we "know" to be right
and true, but that can provide me with a truly new and unique
way of seeing things. And it's the new that keeps my life vital
and dynamic, not the old, "sensible" way of looking at the world.
Besides, most of the "sensible" beliefs about life and living are
disproved, leaving us to wonder why we believed in them anyway.

tom walsh

The great lesson from the true mystics is that the sacred
is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life,
in one's neighbors, friends, and family, in one's backyard.

Abraham H. Maslow

A carpenter and his apprentice were walking together through a large forest.
And when they came across a tall, huge, gnarled, old, beautiful oak tree,
the carpenter asked his apprentice: "Do you know why this tree
is so tall, so huge, so gnarled, so old and beautiful?" The apprentice
looked at his master and said: "No. . . why?" "Well," the carpenter said,
"because it is useless. If it had been useful it would have been cut
long ago and made into tables and chairs, but because it is useless it
could grow so tall and so beautiful that you can sit in its shade and relax."

Tao Story

I was driving north on Highway 101, just ten minutes past the Golden Gate Bridge, on my way to the Richmond Bridge in San Rafael. I planned to cross the bay and drive on north from there to Antioch, where I had an important business meeting. Even though it was midday, I found myself suddenly in gridlock traffic. I thought I might miss my appointment in Antioch. I began to feel anxious. I became irritated at the drivers I saw joining the freeway traffic from entrance ramps without leaving any space for the cars already on the highway to move forward. It was looking less and less likely that I'd be at my appointment on time. I noticed that my body had become tense and I was gripping the wheel. Then I looked out the driver's side window and saw Mount Tamalpais. I looked out to my right and saw Richardson Bay. I thought, "I am sitting between two major tourist attractions. People come from all over the world to sit exactly where I am sitting right now in order to have this view." I sat back and appreciated the view. My hands unclenched. My body relaxed. My mind relaxed. Then I had this big revelation.

This was my revelation: "I'll get to Antioch when I get to Antioch. Maybe today. Maybe not today. Maybe I'll be there for the meeting. Maybe I won't be there for the meeting. Whatever will be will be. My getting aggravated is not changing the situation. It is making it worse."

When the traffic did start up again, I didn't drive too fast, so I didn't become a menace to myself and everyone else on the highway. That's the important part. . . . You need to keep looking for whatever perspective you can find that will transform the moment.

Art George
as related to Sylvia Boorstein

When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take
a precious penny of my own and hide it for someone else to find. I was greatly
excited at the thought of the first lucky passerby who would receive a gift in this
way, regardless of merit, a free gift from the universe. . . . I’ve been thinking
about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises.
The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.

Annie Dillard