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There are truths on this side of the Pyranees, which are falsehoods on the other. ~Blaise Pascal
If you do not raise your eyes you will think that you are the highest point. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds. ~Robert Green Ingersoll
Advice to children crossing the street: damn the lights. Watch the cars. The lights ain't never killed nobody. ~Moms Mabley
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. ~H.L. Mencken, Minority Report, 1956
Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships. ~Charles Simic
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. ~Ivy Baker Priest
Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you. ~Richard Brinsley Sheridan
People who look through keyholes are apt to get the idea that most things are keyhole shaped. ~Author Unknown
I am chained to the earth to pay for the freedom of my eyes. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye. ~Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris, 1935
Sin is geographical. ~Bertrand Russell
I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the years'. ~Henry Moore
Set out from any point. They are all alike. They all lead to a point of departure. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Someone said, "The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did." Precisely, and they are that which we know. ~T.S. Eliot
Immorality: The morality of those who are having a better time. ~H.L. Mencken
A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works. ~Bill Vaughan
In order for something to become clean, something else must become dirty. ~Imbesi's Conservation of Filth Law
If you're being run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like a parade. ~Author Unknown
Do not call any work menial until you have watched a proud person do it. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds. ~George Santayana
The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. ~Henry Miller
All honor's wounds are self-inflicted. ~Andrew Carnegie
The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on. ~Joseph Heller, Catch-22
There's no such thing as bragging. You're either lying or telling the truth. ~Al Oliver
A penny will hide the biggest star in the Universe if you hold it close enough to your eye. ~Samuel Grafton
Is the glass half empty, half full, or twice as large as it needs to be? ~Author Unknown
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. ~Abraham Maslow
Don't think of organ donations as giving up part of yourself to keep a total stranger alive. It's really a total stranger giving up almost all of themselves to keep part of you alive. ~Author Unknown
Be careful how you interpret the world: It is like that. ~Erich Heller
Astronomers always work in the past; because light takes time to move from one place to another, they see things as they were, not as they are. ~Neale E. Howard, The Telescope Handbook and Star Atlas, 1967
Each act is virgin, even the repeated ones. ~René Char
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. ~Anaïs Nin
The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress. ~Joseph Joubert, Pensées, 1842
The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate. ~Bern Williams
No man but feels more of a man in the world if he have but a bit of ground that he can call his own. However small it is on the surface, it is four thousand miles deep; and that is a very handsome property. ~Charles Dudley Warner
The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was a genius. ~Sid Caesar
When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute - and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity. ~Albert Einstein
Feast, n. A festival. A religious celebration usually signalized by gluttony and drunkenness, frequently in honor of some holy person distinguished for abstemiousness. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. ~Arthur Schopenhauer, "Studies in Pessimism," Psychological Observations, 1851
Efficiency is intelligent laziness. ~David Dunham
It is not enough for a man to know how to ride; he must know how to fall. ~Mexican Proverb
If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe. ~Carl Sagan
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. ~Alexander Pope, in Swift, Miscellanies
Hay is more acceptable to an ass than gold. ~Latin Proverb
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ~Kahlil Gibran
If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Every man regards his own life as the New Year's Eve of time. ~Jean Paul Richter
All the suns labor to kindle your flame and a microbe puts it out. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
There is no burnt rice to a hungry person. ~Philippine Proverb
If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation will you prefer the grain to the vote? ~Bertrand Russell
Dare to turn life on its end, and you may find that topsy-turvy is a truer perspective than turvy-topsy. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Nothing is further than Earth from Heaven: nothing is nearer than Heaven to Earth. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
As far as the Moon is concerned, he is always full. ~Terri Guillemets
Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow's speed. ~Howard Nemerov
How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares, were there a danger of their coming true! ~Logan Pearsall Smith
Everybody's talking about people breaking into houses but there are more people in the world who want to break out of houses. ~Thornton Wilder, The Matchmaker, 1955
A statistician made a few calculations and discovered that since the birth of our nation more lives had been lost in celebrating independence than in winning it. ~Curtis Billings
If I had been around when Rubens was painting, I would have been revered as a fabulous model. Kate Moss? Well, she would have been the paintbrush. ~Dawn French
Flowers often grow more beautifully on dung-hills than in gardens that look beautifully kept. ~Saint Francis de Sales
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
~William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence," 1810
It is seldom indeed that one parts on good terms, because if one were on good terms one would not part. ~Marcel Proust, The Fugitive, Remembrance of Things Past, 1925
There will be a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. ~Louis L'Amour
The rich would have to eat money if the poor did not provide food. ~Russian Proverb
My play was a complete success. The audience was a failure. ~Ashleigh Brilliant
The tyrant is nothing but a slave turned inside out. ~Herbert Spencer
The bluebird carries the sky on his back. ~Henry David Thoreau
Expectant of greater things,
We try climbing -
Higher
And Higher;
An effort that costs us much,
Leaving us short of breath
To find only
The ground below is much prettier.
~Phillip Pulfrey, "Mountains" Love, Abstraction and other Speculations, www.originals.net
There are those whose sole claim to profundity is the discovery of exceptions to the rules. ~Paul Eldridge
There's an alternative. There's always a third way, and it's not a combination of the other two ways. It's a different way. ~David Carradine
The violence we do to ourselves in order to remain faithful to the one we love is hardly better than an act of infidelity. ~François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims, 1665
Just as important as having a list of priorities is every once in a while starting from the bottom. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
The chains that bind us most closely are the ones we have broken. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
If you see the world in black and white, you're missing important grey matter. ~Jack Fyock
A boil is no big deal. On someone else's neck. ~Jewish Saying
I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed. ~Matthew Henry
A kind soul knows impoliteness is just preoccupied with distraction. ~Mike Dolan, www.hawaiianlife.com
The bat hanging upside down laughs at the topsy-turvy world. ~Japanese Proverb
In the ideal sense nothing is uninteresting; there are only uninterested people. ~Brooks Atkinson
Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision. ~Stevie Wonder
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, I am a citizen of the world. ~Socrates
A "fraternity" is the antithesis of fraternity. The first... is predicated on the idea of exclusion; the second (that is, the abstract thing) is based on a feeling of total equality. ~E.B. White, One Man's Meat, 1944
If we would see others as they see themselves, our shyness would soon become compassion. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Retreat, hell! We're just advancing in another direction. ~Oliver Prince Smith
Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious. ~Saint Thomas Aquinas
An abridgement may be a bridge: it may help us over the water: but it keeps us from drinking. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
An apology for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case. God has written all the books. ~Samuel Butler, Note-Books
All religions issue bibles against him, and say most injurious things about him, but we never hear his side. ~Mark Twain, about the Devil
The shadows: some hide, others reveal. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
No one knows what they'll do in a moment of crisis and hypothetical questions get hypothetical answers. ~Joan Baez, "What Would You Do If....?"
Daughter am I in my mother's house;
But mistress in my own.
~Rudyard Kipling, "Our Lady of the Snows," 1898
Quotations of Perspective 2
If you do not raise your eyes you will think that you are the highest point. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds. ~Robert Green Ingersoll
Advice to children crossing the street: damn the lights. Watch the cars. The lights ain't never killed nobody. ~Moms Mabley
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. ~H.L. Mencken, Minority Report, 1956
Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships. ~Charles Simic
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. ~Ivy Baker Priest
Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you. ~Richard Brinsley Sheridan
People who look through keyholes are apt to get the idea that most things are keyhole shaped. ~Author Unknown
I am chained to the earth to pay for the freedom of my eyes. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye. ~Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris, 1935
Sin is geographical. ~Bertrand Russell
I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the years'. ~Henry Moore
Set out from any point. They are all alike. They all lead to a point of departure. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Someone said, "The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did." Precisely, and they are that which we know. ~T.S. Eliot
Immorality: The morality of those who are having a better time. ~H.L. Mencken
A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works. ~Bill Vaughan
In order for something to become clean, something else must become dirty. ~Imbesi's Conservation of Filth Law
If you're being run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like a parade. ~Author Unknown
Do not call any work menial until you have watched a proud person do it. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds. ~George Santayana
The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. ~Henry Miller
All honor's wounds are self-inflicted. ~Andrew Carnegie
The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on. ~Joseph Heller, Catch-22
There's no such thing as bragging. You're either lying or telling the truth. ~Al Oliver
A penny will hide the biggest star in the Universe if you hold it close enough to your eye. ~Samuel Grafton
Is the glass half empty, half full, or twice as large as it needs to be? ~Author Unknown
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. ~Abraham Maslow
Don't think of organ donations as giving up part of yourself to keep a total stranger alive. It's really a total stranger giving up almost all of themselves to keep part of you alive. ~Author Unknown
Be careful how you interpret the world: It is like that. ~Erich Heller
Astronomers always work in the past; because light takes time to move from one place to another, they see things as they were, not as they are. ~Neale E. Howard, The Telescope Handbook and Star Atlas, 1967
Each act is virgin, even the repeated ones. ~René Char
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. ~Anaïs Nin
The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress. ~Joseph Joubert, Pensées, 1842
The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate. ~Bern Williams
No man but feels more of a man in the world if he have but a bit of ground that he can call his own. However small it is on the surface, it is four thousand miles deep; and that is a very handsome property. ~Charles Dudley Warner
The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was a genius. ~Sid Caesar
When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute - and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity. ~Albert Einstein
Feast, n. A festival. A religious celebration usually signalized by gluttony and drunkenness, frequently in honor of some holy person distinguished for abstemiousness. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. ~Arthur Schopenhauer, "Studies in Pessimism," Psychological Observations, 1851
Efficiency is intelligent laziness. ~David Dunham
It is not enough for a man to know how to ride; he must know how to fall. ~Mexican Proverb
If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe. ~Carl Sagan
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. ~Alexander Pope, in Swift, Miscellanies
Hay is more acceptable to an ass than gold. ~Latin Proverb
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ~Kahlil Gibran
If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Every man regards his own life as the New Year's Eve of time. ~Jean Paul Richter
All the suns labor to kindle your flame and a microbe puts it out. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
There is no burnt rice to a hungry person. ~Philippine Proverb
If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation will you prefer the grain to the vote? ~Bertrand Russell
Dare to turn life on its end, and you may find that topsy-turvy is a truer perspective than turvy-topsy. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Nothing is further than Earth from Heaven: nothing is nearer than Heaven to Earth. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
As far as the Moon is concerned, he is always full. ~Terri Guillemets
Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow's speed. ~Howard Nemerov
How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares, were there a danger of their coming true! ~Logan Pearsall Smith
Everybody's talking about people breaking into houses but there are more people in the world who want to break out of houses. ~Thornton Wilder, The Matchmaker, 1955
A statistician made a few calculations and discovered that since the birth of our nation more lives had been lost in celebrating independence than in winning it. ~Curtis Billings
If I had been around when Rubens was painting, I would have been revered as a fabulous model. Kate Moss? Well, she would have been the paintbrush. ~Dawn French
Flowers often grow more beautifully on dung-hills than in gardens that look beautifully kept. ~Saint Francis de Sales
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
~William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence," 1810
It is seldom indeed that one parts on good terms, because if one were on good terms one would not part. ~Marcel Proust, The Fugitive, Remembrance of Things Past, 1925
There will be a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. ~Louis L'Amour
The rich would have to eat money if the poor did not provide food. ~Russian Proverb
My play was a complete success. The audience was a failure. ~Ashleigh Brilliant
The tyrant is nothing but a slave turned inside out. ~Herbert Spencer
The bluebird carries the sky on his back. ~Henry David Thoreau
Expectant of greater things,
We try climbing -
Higher
And Higher;
An effort that costs us much,
Leaving us short of breath
To find only
The ground below is much prettier.
~Phillip Pulfrey, "Mountains" Love, Abstraction and other Speculations, www.originals.net
There are those whose sole claim to profundity is the discovery of exceptions to the rules. ~Paul Eldridge
There's an alternative. There's always a third way, and it's not a combination of the other two ways. It's a different way. ~David Carradine
The violence we do to ourselves in order to remain faithful to the one we love is hardly better than an act of infidelity. ~François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims, 1665
Just as important as having a list of priorities is every once in a while starting from the bottom. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
The chains that bind us most closely are the ones we have broken. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
If you see the world in black and white, you're missing important grey matter. ~Jack Fyock
A boil is no big deal. On someone else's neck. ~Jewish Saying
I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed. ~Matthew Henry
A kind soul knows impoliteness is just preoccupied with distraction. ~Mike Dolan, www.hawaiianlife.com
The bat hanging upside down laughs at the topsy-turvy world. ~Japanese Proverb
In the ideal sense nothing is uninteresting; there are only uninterested people. ~Brooks Atkinson
Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision. ~Stevie Wonder
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, I am a citizen of the world. ~Socrates
A "fraternity" is the antithesis of fraternity. The first... is predicated on the idea of exclusion; the second (that is, the abstract thing) is based on a feeling of total equality. ~E.B. White, One Man's Meat, 1944
If we would see others as they see themselves, our shyness would soon become compassion. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Retreat, hell! We're just advancing in another direction. ~Oliver Prince Smith
Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious. ~Saint Thomas Aquinas
An abridgement may be a bridge: it may help us over the water: but it keeps us from drinking. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
An apology for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case. God has written all the books. ~Samuel Butler, Note-Books
All religions issue bibles against him, and say most injurious things about him, but we never hear his side. ~Mark Twain, about the Devil
The shadows: some hide, others reveal. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
No one knows what they'll do in a moment of crisis and hypothetical questions get hypothetical answers. ~Joan Baez, "What Would You Do If....?"
Daughter am I in my mother's house;
But mistress in my own.
~Rudyard Kipling, "Our Lady of the Snows," 1898
Quotations of Perspective 2
