Perspective Quotes
More Perspective Quotes
The people who do make big discoveries are the ones who somehow manage to free themselves from conventional ways of thinking and to see the subject from a new perspective.
anthony james leggett— Interview 2003 Nobel Laureates in Physics, 9 December 2003 (8:02).
In our time of ever-increasing specialization, there is a tendency to concern ourselves with relatively narrow scientific problems. The broad foundations of our present-day scientific knowledge and its historical development tend to be forgotten too often. This is an unfortunate trend, not only because our horizon becomes rather limited and our perspective somewhat distorted, but also because there are many valuable lessons to be learned in looking back over the years during which the basic concepts and the fundamental laws of a particular scientific discipline were first formulated.
— in Einstein's Researches on the Nature of Light, Emil Wolf (2001). Selected works of Emil Wolf: with commentary. World Scientific. p. 536. ISBN 9810242042.
There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be, but we have done various things over intellectual history to slowly correct some of our misapprehensions.
douglas adams— Speech at Digital Biota 2, Cambridge, UK, (1998)
I do not want to discuss evolution in such depth, however, only touch on it from my own perspective: from the moment when I stood on the Serengeti plains holding the fossilized bones of ancient creatures in my hands to the moment when, staring into the eyes of a chimpanzee, I saw a thinking, reasoning personality looking back. You may not believe in evolution, and that is all right. How we humans came to be the way we are is far less important than how we should act now to get out of the mess we have made for ourselves.
jane goodall— P. xx. (Reason for Hope: a Spiritual Journey (2000))
From the perspective of those who are entitled, the problems begin when those they despise do not go along with--and have the power and wherewithal to not go along with--the perceived entitlement.
derrick jensen— p. 106 (The Culture of Make Believe (2003))
But of course their doctrine states that the purpose of a suit is to harass, not to win, so from that perspective they hurt us all. They've had a real chilling effect on journalism, both before and after my piece.
Richard Behar— Interview in Marr, David (January 19, 2008). "Print and be damned - CULT". The Age: p. 3, First Edition, Section: Insight.
Science provides a vision of reality seen from the perspective of reason, a perspective that sees the vast order of the universe, living and non-living matter, as a material system governed by rules that can be known by the human mind.It is a powerful vision, formal and austere but strangely silent about many of the questions that deeplyconcernus. Scienceshowsuswhat existsbut not what to do about it.
Heinz R(udolf) Pagels— 1988 The Dreams of Reason. US writer, Professor of Humanities at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Her works include Sexual Personae (1990) and Vamps andTramps (1994).
Her logic was a combination of half-truths and cliche s, her worldviewa compound of misconceptions deriving from a history of our nation as written from the perspective of a subway tunnel.
john kennedy toole— A Confederacy of Dunces (published1980), ch.5, pt.3.
If you refuse to study anatomy, the arts of drawing and perspective, the mathematics of aesthetics, and the science of color, let me tell you that this is more a sign of laziness than of genius.
salvador dalí— p. 81 (Diary of a Genius (1964))
If you want to get an interesting perspective do not think of Hugh as a traditional 20th century physicist but more of a Renaissance man with interests and skills in many different areas. He was smart and lots of things interested him and he brought the same general conceptual methodology to solve them. The subject matter was not so important as the solution ideas.
hugh everett— Donald Reisler[2]
We always have urged people: Don't take LSD unless you are very well prepared, unless you are specifically prepared to go out of your mind. Don't take it unless you have someone that's very experienced with you to guide you through it. And don't take it unless you are ready to have your perspective on yourself and your life radically changed, because you're gonna be a different person, and you should be ready to face this possibility.
timothy leary— CBC Documentary: How To Go Out of Your Mind: The LSD Crisis (1966)
During his long political career, my father was always active in communicating the Christian gospel from the evangelical perspective,...
preston manning— Chapter Four, The Spiritual Dimension, p. 95
Peter Sellers, a showbiz baby, was carried onstage two weeks into his life by vaudevillian Dickie Henderson, who encouraged the audience to join him in singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." Little Peter instantly burst into tears and the audience erupted into laughter and applause. From Pete's perspective, this emotional scenario was played out more or less consistently until his death in 1980.
Peter Sellers— Ed Sikov in Mr. Strangelove: A Biography of Peter Sellers (2002)
Futurism and Cubism are comparable in importance tot the invention of perspective, for which they substituted a new concept op space. All subsequent movements were latent in them or brought about by them... the two movements cannot be regarded as in opposition to each other, even though they started from opposite points; I maintain (an idea approved by Apollinaire and later by Matisse) that they are two extremes of the same sign, tending to coincide at certain points which only the poetic instinct of the painter can discover: poetry being the content and raison d’être of art.
gino severini— p. 248-249
What do we mean by spiritual development? Surely, the broadening and deepening of the mind till it regards the world in its true perspective, and the strengthening of the character so that the will is a tempered and unerring weapon in the charge of a man's soul. And this end is to be achieved only by the exercise of the mind upon the largest possible manifold of experience, and by the conflict of character with the alien forces of the world.
john buchan— Ch. XII, pp. 336–7
It's more of a theological perspective. I do believe there is an Almighty, and I believe a gift of that Almighty to all is freedom. And I will tell you that is a principle that no one can convince me that doesn't exist.
george w. bush— Statement on the justification for the Iraq War (July 20, 2007)
The worst aspect of dating from the perspective of many men is how dating can feel to a man like robbery by social custom – the social custom of him taking money out of his pocket, giving it to her, and calling it a date. To a young man, the worst dates feel like being robbed and rejected. Boys risk death to avoid rejection (e.g., by joining the Army)
warren farrell— p. 314. (Part III: Government as substitute husband)
Nietzsche seems sometimes to replace the “transcendence” which stands at the center of traditional accounts the existence of a transcendent God, or, failing that, a transcendental viewpoint with that of a continually transcending activity. … There is no single, final perspective, but given any one perspective, we can always go beyond it.
raymond geuss— pp. 8-9 (Outside Ethics (2005))
See what the world looks like from orbit. Well, in that way, at least, there was profit to be had. Nobody could look down at the planet, green and blue, with no borders in evidence and no sign of human habitation, and not get his perspective forever altered.
jack mcdevitt— Chapter 16 (p. 142)
The world of visual perspective is one of unified and homogeneous space. Such a world is alien to the resonating diversity of spoken words. So language was the last art to accept the visual logic of Gutenberg technology, and the first to rebound in the electric age.
Marshall McLuhan— p. 136 ("The Agenbite of Outwit")
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
marcus aurelius
Futurism and Cubism are comparable in importance tot the invention of perspective, for which they substituted a new concept op space. All subsequent movements were latent in them or brought about by them.. ..the two movements cannot be regarded as in opposition to each other, even though they started from opposite points; I maintain (an idea approved by Apollinaire and later by Matisse ) that they are two extremes of the same sign, tending to coincide at certain points which only the poetic instinct of the painter can discover: poetry being the content and raison d’être of art.
— Gino Severini, as quoted in Letters of the great artists, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p. 248-249 (translation Daphne Woodward)
I judge things from an evolutionary perspective "How does this serve and contribute to the process of our own evolution?" rather than think of good and evil in moral terms. I see the triumph of good over evil as a manifestation of the error-correcting process of evolution .
— Jonas Salk, in Academy of Achievement interview, in San Diego, California (16 May 1991)
The Devi-Bhagavata, expounding the sakta perspective, explicitly rejects the Samkhyan view of matter , prakriti.
— Devi-Bhagavata, in "The Triumph of the Goddess: The Canonical Models and Theological Visions of ... (29 August 1990)]", p.30
There is a revolutionary scientific perspective (stemming) from the General Systems Research movement and (with a) wealth of principles, ideas and insights that have already brought higher degree of scientific order and understanding to many areas as of biology, psychology and some physical sciences... Modern systems research can provide the basic of a framework more capable of doing justice to the complexities and dynamic properties of the socio-cultural system.
— Walter F. Buckley (1967) Sociology and modern systems theory, p. vii; As cited in: cited in: Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1968) General System Theory. p. 7-8
Infidelity and faith look both through the perspective glass, but at contrary ends. Infidelity looks through the wrong end of the glass; and, therefore, sees those objects near which are afar off, and makes great things little, diminishing the greatest spiritual blessings, and removing far from us threatened evils. Faith looks at the right end, and brings the blessings that are far off in time close to our eye, and multiplies God's mercies, which, in a distance, lost their greatness.
— Bishop Hall Select Thoughts, or Choice Helps for Pious Spirits
I'm just thankful for everything, all the blessings in my life, trying to stay that way. I think that's the best way to start your day and finish your day. It keeps everything in perspective.
Tim Tebow— Former professional American football player and current professional baseball outfielder.
I judge things from an evolutionary perspective "How does this serve and contribute to the process of our own evolution?" rather than think of good and evil in moral terms. I see the triumph of good over evil as a manifestation of the error-correcting process of evolution.
— Jonas Salk, in Academy of Achievement interview, in San Diego, California (16 May 1991)
