Perception is a mirror not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward.
Interpretation
Perception shapes our reality, reflecting our inner state rather than external truths.
Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes that perception is subjective and acts as a mirror of our inner thoughts and feelings. What we observe in the world is not an objective reality but rather a reflection of our own mental state, suggesting that our interpretations and judgments are colored by our emotions and mindset.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-awareness.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish desires and schemes that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For love of money is the root of all of evil and some having pursued its power, fall from faith and end in sorrow.
Personal columnists are jackals and no jackal has been known to live on grass once he had learned about meat - no matter who killed the meat for him.
High moral character is not a precondition for great moral accomplishments.
I think we live in a culture that is actually hedging all of it towards comfort and immediacy, things that scare me. All the things that they sell us as a way of life scare me.
The essence of Buddhism is if you can, help others. If not, then at least refrain from hurting others.
It's clearly more important to treat one's fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one's head to a prayer mat.
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