Quotes about Perception

It is by being awake to God in us that we can increasingly see God in the world around us.

Jesus, of course, had this capacity to see truly. For example, Saint John tells us, Jesus did not want to entrust himself to them because he knew what was in every heart (John 2:24). Such intuitive and perceptive knowledge is the nature of discernment.

Then occupation is called a blessing and emptiness a curse. Many telephone conversations start with the words: "I know you are busy, but …" and we would confuse the speaker and even harm our reputation were we to say, "Oh no, I am completely free, today, tomorrow and the whole week." Our client might well lose interest in a man who has so little to do.

We cannot see God in the other person. Only God in us can see God in the other person.

People who read your ideas tend to think that your writings reflect your life.

When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.

I do not know how to distinguish between waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life that we imagine we are?

We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.

Truth strikes us from behind and in the dark, as well as from before and in broad daylight.

In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment and will never be more divine in the lapse of the ages. Time is but a stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it, but when I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away but eternity remains.

Truths and roses have thorns about them.

Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.