We all see the world in different ways. Sometimes our view of the world is tinted by our own biases or fears, while other times it’s influenced by the people and things around us. No matter what shapes our perception, though, it’s always fascinating to explore how others see the world.
In this collection of quotes, you’ll find musings on everything from how we perceive beauty to how we experience time. So take a few minutes to reflect on these thoughts, and see if they provoke any new perspectives for you. Who knows? You may even start thinking about your own perception in a new light.
Quotes About Perception of the World
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
Marcus Aurelius
“Science is nothing but perception.”
Plato
“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.”
Leonardo da Vinci
“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.”
Lao Tzu
“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”
William Blake
“It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.”
Carl Jung
“There is no fixed physical reality, no single perception of the world, just numerous ways of interpreting world views as dictated by one’s nervous system and the specific environment of our planetary existence.”
Deepak Chopra
“Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes.”
Virginia Woolf
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Oscar Wilde
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
Henry David Thoreau
“The reality of life is that your perceptions – right or wrong – influence everything else you do. When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other things fall into place.”
Roger Birkman
“One has not only an ability to perceive the world but an ability to alter one’s perception of it; more simply, one can change things by the manner in which one looks at them.”
Tom Robbins
“The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.”
Aristotle
“We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.”
Epictetus
“Maybe each human being lives in a unique world, a private world different from those inhabited and experienced by all other humans…If reality differs from person to person, can we speak of reality singular, or shouldn’t we really be talking about plural realities?”
Philip K. Dick
“No two people see the external world in exactly the same way. To every separate person a thing is what he thinks it is — in other words, not a thing, but a think.”
Penelope Fitzgerald
“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”
Robertson Davies
“Perception is a mirror not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Heightened perception is the goal: becoming more aware of how you see, not just what you see.”
Michael Kimmelman
“Our life is not so much threatened as our perception. Ghost-like we glide through nature, and should not know our place again.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Yet there is nothing more dangerous than to be premature in exploiting a change in perception.”
Peter Drucker
“All perception is colored by emotion.”
Immanuel Kant
“Each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are – or, as we are conditioned to see it.”
Stephen Covey
Quotes About Perception and Reality
“Perception is reality but it may not be actuality, and you have got to be able to keep the difference between that.”
Bill Cowher
“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
William Blake
“Reality is ultimately a selective act of perception and interpretation. A shift in our perception and interpretation enables us to break old habits and awaken new possibilities for balance, healing, and transformation.”
David Simon
“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.”
Aldous Huxley
“Reality is based on perception.”
Geoff Thompson
“Perception is real even when it is not reality.”
Edward de Bono
“Perception precedes reality.”
Andy Warhol
“Perception is merely reality filtered through the prism of your soul.”
Christopher A. Ray
“Perception is demonstrably an active rather than a passive process; it constructs rather than records ‘reality’.”
Michael Michalko
Quotes About Perception of Self
“The moment you change your perception is the moment you rewrite the chemistry of your body.”
Dr. Bruce Lipton
“We must not allow other people’s perceptions to define us.”
Virginia Satir
“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.”
Abraham Maslo
“The perception of identity is so intimately bound up with the perception of the human form.”David Hanson
“Do what you know and perception is converted into character.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”
Lao Tzu
“To be aware of a single shortcoming in oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in someone else.”
Dalai Lama
“People seldom change. Only their masks do. It is only our perception of them and the perception they have of themselves that actually change.”
Shannon L. Alder
Quotes About Perception of Others
“Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos. That is the way we all see each other in life.”
Tennessee Williams
“No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.”
Ansel Adams
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
Carl Jung
“Every person has a different view of another person’s image. That’s all perception. The character of a man, the integrity, that’s who you are.”
Steve Alford
“Perception is reality. If you are perceived to be something, you might as well be it because that’s the truth in people’s minds.”
Steve Young
Quotes About Perception and Truth
“All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“There is no truth. There is only perception.”
Gustave Flaubert
“People see what they want to see and what people want to see isn’t always the truth.”
Roberto Bolano
“All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy.”
Henry David Thoreau
Quotes About Perception of Beauty and Art
“The perception of beauty is a moral test.”
Henry David Thoreau
“In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is – as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art.”
Josef Albers
“A work of art doesn’t exist outside the perception of the audience.”
Abbas Kiarostami
“Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.”
Michelangelo
A Final Word
Perceptions are everything, and the quotes we’ve shared should help you see the world a little differently. We hope that these inspiring words will motivate you to look at life through a new lens, appreciate the beauty in everyday moments, and find joy in the simplest things.
What’s your favorite quote about perception? Leave us a comment below – we’d love to hear what resonates with you!
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