1,601 Quotes About Perception

...human beings have a distorted view of risk. They don't see the whole picture. Our perceptions are twisted by stories in the media, by films, by our own personalities and experiences. So, despite the unlikely odds, we still worry about being raped or murdered. We hear a sound in the night and think of burglars, not mice... It's kind of a protective pessimism: if we worry about the worst happening, it may miss our door.

The yellow eyes had fallen from the tired star. Lorq's face erupted about the scar at some antic from the Mouse that Katin had missed. Rage, Katin pondered. Rage. Yes, he is laughing. But how is anyone supposed to distinguish between laughter and rage in that face? But the others were laughing too. Yet some way, somehow, we do.

Habits of the mind also provide our mental framework – the way we see the world

Reality is only as true as it is perceived. Reality does not change. How it is perceived does.

Nothing happens ‘to’ you, everything happens ‘for’ you.

Love makes things so easy. At the same time, it makes things very difficult. The meaning of love always remains to be the same. It just gets changed according to the perception of people in different gestures.

If a boat is shattered by a storm, the desperate passengers cling to the floating pieces of the hull. In that moment, it's not a broken boat. To a drowning man, it's a floating miracle.

What you don’t know fills the infinite universe. What you do know only fills your mind.

Sometimes the pain is a startling breach that hobbles your entire soul; dreadful losses that rupture your perceived reality. Pain so visceral and unrelenting that even death itself can begin to look like a welcomed and kind benefactor.