James Salter Quotes

The same evidence that is convincing to one person may not convince another.

We see things as we are, not as they are.

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.

What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.

When we describe what the other person is really like, I suppose we often picture what we want. We look through the prism of our need.

You only find what you are looking for, really, if the truth be known.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

I want to suggest a feeling. It's ridiculous to assume you can state an opinion. Somebody else can never relate to the lyric in the same way because their whole experience is different. You can only suggest, then people add their own history and experience to the lyrics.

What is truth? Truth doesn't really exist. Who is going to judge whether my experience of an incident is more valid than yours? No one can be trusted to be the judge of that.

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experience. No one can eliminate prejudices—just recognize them.

Remember, we see the world not as it is but as we are. Most of us see through the eyes of our fears and our limiting beliefs and our false assumptions.

Remember that my view, the only true view I can see with, is through the black eyes that I have.

People are going to assume whatever they want to assume.

Two sides to a story exist when evidence exists on both sides of a position. Then, reasonable people may disagree about how to weigh that evidence and what conclusion to form from it. Everyone, of course, is entitled to their own opinion.

There's a Yoruba proverb which roughly translates into, 'What turns its face to one person has turned its back on the other.' It's always made me think about how deeply subjective our experience of the world can be.

To me, point of view is everything.

The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into whatever garments of belief please them best. I too have woven my garment like another, but I shall try to keep warm in it, and shall be well content if it do not unbecome me.

The eye of the intellect "sees in all objects what it brought with it the means of seeing."

What you see is not what we see. What you see is distracted by memory, by being who you are, all this time, for all these years.

A man sees what he wants to see, And disregards the rest.

I'm not a slave to objectivity. I'm never quite sure what it means. And it means different things to different people.