George MacDonald Quotes

The first lesson about trusting your senses is: don't. Just because you believe something to be true, just because you know it's true, that doesn't mean it is true.

The assumption that seeing is believing makes us susceptible to visual deception.

You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.

Never believe your eyes

We believe what we see.’...What do you do when you’re in the dark?

He thinks he believes only what he sees, but he is much better at believing than at seeing.

Oftentimes what you see cancels out what you perceive.

Seeing is not always believing.

A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see them.

I like illusion when it is so convincing that we might as well see reality this way - I like to present to our belief system something that is convincing, that 'we know not to be.'

Not seeing is half-believing.

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

You do not believe, you only believe that you believe.

I think Abraham Lincoln said believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see.

A man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe.

We hear things, but we can't always see them, or, even if we do see them, we're not sure that we're seeing correctly. Hence: Invisible.

What people believe prevails over the truth.

I don't want them to believe me, I just want them to think.

I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.

People think that they see, but they don't.

What men call knowledge, is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees.

What you see with your eyes is not necessarily real.

Some guys-a lot of guys-don't believe what they are seeing, especially if it gets in the way of what they want to eat or drink or believe. Me, I don't believe in God. But if i saw him, I would. I wouldn't just go around saying, "Jesus, that was a great special effect." The definition of an asshole is a guy who doesn't believe what he's seeing.

We need discernment in what we see and what we hear and what we believe.

In Shakespeare's world, characters cannot trust their senses. Is the ghost in Hamlet true and truthful, or is it a demon, tempting young Hamlet into murderous sin? Is Juliet dead or merely sleeping? Does Lear really stand at the edge of a great cliff? Or has the Fool deceived him to save his life?