Robert Burton Quotes

An error becomes an error when born as truth.

Things are not always as they seem; the first appearance deceives many.

Pray look better, Sir... those things yonder are no giants, but windmills.

It's so easy for us to misperceive and see the things in others that we want to see. And, when we're wrong, and often we're dead wrong, we miss the truth.

It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.

Belief and seeing: They are both often wrong.

Things are NEVER what they seem, Pa, I thought. I used to think they were, but I was wrong or stupid or blind or something. Old folks are forever complaining about their failing eyesight, but I think your vision gets better as you get older. Mine surely was.

What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth.

You see through love, and that deludes your sight, As what is straight seems crooked through the water.

Our experience is composed rather of illusions lost than of wisdom acquired.

It may not be impossible, but that our Faculties may be so construed, as always to deceive us in the things we judge most certain and assured.

We do not see people as they are, but as they appear to us. And these appearances are usually misleading.

Love is not blind. Romance is. Romance is the most dangerous thing. Romance is like an illusion. It shows you things, and you hear things that don't exist.

Things are not always as they seem.

Sometimes what we see, what's going on in front of us, isn't really what's happening.

Image overshadows reality in our league, and there are people who get to believe they are better than they really are.

The grass is always greener on the other side - until you get there and see it's AstroTurf. Symbols are never reality. Someone might have amassed material success and fame, but that doesn't mean they're happy. So, don't go judging a person's life by the cover.

I knew nothing but shadows and I thought them to be real.

No doubt about it: error is the rule, truth is the accident of error.

Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It's everyone's, come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet.

You can believe something really hard,' Faith says, 'and still be wrong.

The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.

How wrong to think I was anyone else, like thinking grass stains make you a beautiful view, like getting kissed makes you kissable, like feeling warm makes you coffee, like liking movies makes you a director. How utterly incorrect to think it any other way, a box of crap is treasures, a boy smiling means it, a gentle moment is a life improved.

Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth.

You think the shadow is the substance.