Zoketsu Norman Fischer Quotes

It's hubris to think that the way we see things is everything there is.

It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block.

I feel increasingly like age is very irrelevant. Quite often, cynicism is confused with wisdom, and my scorn is confused with a knowing, which I don't have.

Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position; denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd.

Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom.

Certitude belongs exclusively to those who only own one encyclopedia.

Prejudice locks the mind. Nothing can enter. Nothing true can escape.

Sometimes circumstance blinds us at first from seeing people for who they really are.

People don't see much further than their noses.

Hardly any one is able to see what is before him, just as it is in itself. He comes expecting one thing, he finds another thing, he sees through the veil of his preconception, he criticizes before he has apprehended, he condemns without allowing his instinct the chance of asserting itself.

One of the greatest enemies to vision is sight!

Anyone must be mainly ignorant or thoughtless, who is surprised at everything he sees; or wonderfully conceited who expects everything to conform to his standard of propriety.

The greatest obstacle to discovering the truth is being convinced that you already know it.

Pride comes from not knowing yourself and the world. The older you grow, and the more you see, the less reason you will find for being proud. Ignorance and inexperience are the pedestal of pride; once the pedestal is removed - pride will soon come down.

Again, if you only know what you know, you don't know if something's good or bad. You don't have perspective.

Some people are blinded by their experience. Soldiers know how important war is. Owners of slaves learn every day how inferior subject peoples are.

Knowledge is the barrier to knowing. When knowledge is dropped, knowing flowers.

The majority of human beings live their whole lives unaware that they are only seeing a limited cone of vision at any moment.

No man sees far, most see no farther than their noses.

But we have been taught to see before our eyes have found out a way of seeing for themselves.

Humans see what they want to see.

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

May God us keep From Single vision and Newton's sleep.

It's very difficult to look at it in a kind of a free manner, what reality is. That was my first struggle, to see it as it is, rather than tainted by my own previous thoughts.

Any given man sees only a tiny portion of the total truth, and very often, in fact almost ... perpetually, he deliberately deceives himself about that little precious fragment as well.