Susan Sontag Quotes

What we already know frames what we see, and what we see frames what we understand.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

What we believe, we see.

One can only see what one observes, and one observes only things which are already in the mind.

Men see what they expect to see.

You see what you expect to see, Severus.

We all see only that which we are trained to see.

The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.

It is pointless to believe what you see, if you only see what you believe.

You can only see what you believe—nothing else is possible.

We must look at the lens through we see the world, as well as the world we see, and that the lens itself shapes how we interpret the world.

You don't want to know the Truth, you want to know the truth as you understand it. This is the greatest barrier to your enlightenment. You think you already know the truth! You think you already understand how it is. So you agree with everything you see or hear or read that falls into the paradigm of your understanding, and reject everything which does not.

People assume that they perceive reality as it is, that our senses accurately record the outside world. Yet the science suggests that, in important ways, people experience reality not as it is, but as they expect it to be.

We cannot see what we don't believe.

In critical moments, men sometimes see exactly what they wish to see.

To be prejudiced is the privilege of the thinking human being. ... The open mind is the empty mind.

They say seeing is believing, but the opposite is true. Believing is seeing.

We see only what we know.

None of us see the world as it is but as we are, as our frames of reference, or maps, define the territory.

We do not see the lens through which we look.

She was reflecting back on a truth she had learned over the years: that people heard what they wanted to hear, saw what they wanted, believed what they wanted.

No amount of effort could have stopped that, because our points of view - the way we perceive things - are inextricably linked to our beliefs, ... ,our beliefs color what we see.

It is as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.

Paradigms power perceptions, perceptions power emotions.

How often do we do that, he wondered--look at someone and fail to see what's really there?