Observations on Seeing Clearly
“Knowledge lies in the investigation of things, and in seeing them as they really are. When things were thus investigated, knowledge became complete.” Confucius
“Much is perceptible which is not perceived by us.” Democritus
“First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote of thy brother’s eye.” Jesus of Nazareth
“What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think they are.” Epictetus
“The great majority of men are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.” Niccolo Machiavelli
“Learn how to see, and remember that everything is connected to everything else.” Leonardo de Vinci
“There is light enough for those who only desire to see.” Blaise Pascal
“It is naïve to think we see things in the external world as they really are.” Rene Descartes
“Imagination should be regulated by reality; instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” Samuel Johnson
“The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.” Johann W. Goethe
“I tried to see things as they really were, and not as I had wished them to be.” Napoleon Bonaparte
“The more one looks, the more one sees” Tielhard de Chardin
“If we live truly, we shall see truly.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The whole secret of the study of nature lies in learning how to use one’s eyes.” George Sand
“The most common lie is that with which one lies to oneself. By lie I mean wishing not to see something that one does see; wishing not to see something as one sees it.” Frederick Nietzsche
“We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world – its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not afraid of it.” Bertrand Russell
“To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion, all in one.” John Ruskin
“We see things as we are not as they are” Jennifer Stone
“Intelligence is the power of seeing things as they really are.” George Santayana
“If we cannot see clearly, we at least want what is unclear to be in focus.” Sigmund Freud
“To transform society requires the seeing of “what is,’ the reality, and not what ‘should be,’ the illusion. I think the problem is to see clearly, then that very perception brings its own action.” J. Krishnamurti
“Actualized beings have…the ability to see life clearly, to see it as it is, rather than as they wish it to be.” Abraham Maslow
“We can only recognize what we know.” E. H. Gombrich – The Story of Art
“Seeing is a creative operation, one that demands effort.” Henri Matisse
“We assume that to look is to see.” Pablo Picasso
“The simple truth of the matter is, you cannot see clearly if you are controlled by preconceptions. James L. Adams – Conceptual Blockbusting
“Reality for some people is broader than it is for others, because they have looked more, lived more, read more and thought more.” Thomas A. Harris – Notes to Myself
“It is seeing things as they are that we can learn to change them.” Tim Gallwey - The Inner Game of Golf
“People who are suffering want to change, but they do not know how…they do not know that to bring about true healing they have to learn how to see themselves as they truly are”. Mark Epstein - Going On Being.
“The individual must be able to see reality as it truly is without biases or misconceptions.” Peter Senge – The Fifth Discipline, 1990
“Learning only comes from seeing the world the way it really is.” – Chris Argyris, Organizational Dynamics, 1993
Revised, September, 14, 2005