Helen Fisher Quotes

To be able to feel the lightest touch really is a gift.

A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.

To be always in a state of wonder is a kind of sensitivity that can sometimes be an extraordinary blessing and sometimes a real pain.

You have the sense of touch because you need it.

The infinite wonders of the universe are revealed to us in exact measure as we are capable of receiving them. The keenness of our vision depends not on how much we can see, but on how much we feel.

People often ... have no idea how fair the flower is to the touch, nor do they appreciate its fragrance, which is the soul of the flower.

Anybody who can't hear the difference between a ball hitting wood and a ball hitting concrete must be blind.

Photography's a case of keeping all the pores of the skin open, as well as the eyes. A lot of photographers today think that by putting on the uniform, the fishing vest, and all the Nikons, that that makes them a photographer. But it doesn't. It's not just seeing. It's feeling.

To the man whose senses are alive and alert there is not even the need to stir from one's threshold.

All can hear, but only the sensitive can understand.

In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are capable of it.

All the art of analysis consists in saying a truth only when the other person is ready for it, has been prepared for it by an organic process of gradation and evolution.

Not every man with a heart is understanding, nor every man with an ear a listener, and nor every man with eyes able to see.

A liberal education will impart an awareness of the amazing and precious complexity of human relationships. Since those relationships are violated more often out of insensitiveness than out of deliberate intent, whatever increases sensitiveness of perception and understanding humanizes life.

It's the ugly things I notice more, because other people tend to ignore the ugly things.

You need to see things, REALLY see them, feel them, live them, so you know what’s big and what’s little, what matters and what to put aside.

You take the senses away, and there is no consciousness. Consciousness comes from experience.

To perceive is to suffer.

If your eyes weren't open, you wouldn't know the difference between dreaming and waking.

Even a room which must be dark needs at least a crack of light to know how dark it is.

We usually do not look into what is really there in front of us. We see life through a screen of thoughts and concepts, and we mistake those mental objects for reality. We get so caught up in this endless thought-stream that reality flows by unnoticed. We spend our time engrossed in activity, caught up in an eternal flight from pain and unpleasantness. We spend our energies trying to make ourselves feel better, trying to bury our fears. We are endlessly seeking security. Meanwhile, the world of real experience flows by untouched and untasted.

Understanding like the eye; whilst it makes us see and perceive all things, takes no notice of itself; and it requires art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own subject.

the bad is more easily perceived than the good. A fresh lobster does not give such pleasure to the consumer as a stale one will give him pain.

For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the perception.