Henry David Thoreau Quotes

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.

Our understanding is correlative to our perception.

It is possible to interpret without observing, but not to observe without interpreting.

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

When people don't understand what they're watching, a lot of what they perceive has to do with who they themselves are.

You know so much about me and yet you don't understand me. To know is not to understand. We could know everything and still not understand anything.

A phenomenon must be to some extent comprehensible to be perceived at all.

Many an object is not seen, though it falls within the range of our visual ray, because it does not come within the range of our intellectual ray.

The eye of the intellect "sees in all objects what it brought with it the means of seeing."

What you think is the point is not the point at all but only the beginning of the sharpness.

Subject is known by what she sees.

Observing and understanding are two different things.

If one looks at a thing with the intention of trying to discover what it means, one ends up no longer seeing the thing itself, but of thinking of the question that is raised.

The eye of understanding is like the eye of the sense; for as you may see great objects through small crannies or levels, so you may see great axioms of nature through small and contemptible instances.

He who walks may see and understand. You can study all America from one hilltop, if your eyes are open and your mind is willing to reach. But first you must walk to that hill.

I think perception is important.

Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.

The eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing.

The analysis of concepts is for the understanding nothing more than what the magnifying glass is for sight.

Knowledge, may it be said, is higher than magic and is more to be sought. It is quite possible to see what is happening and yet not know what is forward, for while seeing is believing, it does not follow that either seeing or believing is knowing.

All vital truth contains the memory of all that for which it is not true.

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

Facts are many, but the truth is one.

Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive.