Virginia Postrel Quotes

I realize that nothing's as it seems.

Did you ever think that maybe what you see isn't really what's true?

Appearances are not held to be a clue to the truth,' said his cousin. 'But we seem to have no other.

Seeing is not always believing.

I often tend to think that things are not what they seem.

Please remember: things are not what they seem.

Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object.

Success has always been a great liar.

I have the terrible feeling that, because I am wearing a white beard and am sitting in the back of the theatre, you expect me to tell you the truth about something. These are the cheap seats, not Mount Sinai.

Belief and seeing: They are both often wrong.

Everything you see is not always real.

Things are not always as they seem.

We are led to believe a lie When we see not through the eye.

Everything you know could already be wrong.

Never believe your eyes

Things are not what they appear to be: nor are they otherwise.

Pictures can be pretty deceptive.

We move from the illusion of certainty, to the certainty of illusion

Even if a man should chance to speak the most complete truth, yet he himself does not know it; all things are wrapped in appearances

Seeing is not believing - it is only seeing.

Things are not at all what they seem to be: oh no, not at all.

You imagine the carefully pruned, shaped thing that is presented to you is truth. That is just what it isn't. The truth is improbable, the truth is fantastic; it's in what you think is a distorting mirror that you see the truth.

Watt's concern, deep as it appeared, was not after all what the figure was, in reality, but with what the figure appeared to be, in reality.

It's lies. It's all lies. Some of them are just prettier than others, that's all. People see what they think is there.

In Africa a thing is true at first light and a lie by noon and you have no more respect for it than for the lovely, perfect wood-fringed lake you see across the sun-baked salt plain. You have walked across that plain in the morning and you know that no such lake is there. But now it is there absolutely true, beautiful and believable.