A Quote by Frederick Lenz

We were never there to begin with. What we are, or conceive of ourselves as, is a perception.

Frederick Lenz

Quote Topics

Begin Conceive Never Ourselves Perception Were

Quote Author

Frederick Lenz
American - Author
February 9, 1950 - April 12, 1998

We erase ourselves; we go away. But we don't really go away, and we don't really erase ourselves, since we were never there to begin with. We weren't there to begin with in that what we are, or conceive of ourselves as, is a perception.

Frederick Lenz

We can conceive a thinking being to have either many or few perceptions. Suppose the mind to be reduced even below the life of anoyster. Suppose it to have only one perception, as of thirst or hunger. Consider it in that situation. Do you conceive any thing but merely that perception? Have you any notion of self or substance? If not, the addition of other perceptions can never give you that notion.

David Hume

It's incongruous that the older we get, the more likely we are to turn in the direction of religion. Less vivid and intense ourselves, closer to the grave, we begin to conceive of ourselves as immortal.

Edward Hoagland

When we erase perception, then we erase that which perceives perception. The universe dissolves and we see that it was never real to begin with.

Frederick Lenz

Such reciprocity is the very structure of perception. We experience the sensuous world only by rendering ourselves vulnerable to that world. Sensory perception is this ongoing interweavement: the terrain enters into us only to the extent that we allow ourselves to be taken up within that terrain.

David Abram

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.

David Hume

Let us fix our attention out of ourselves as much as possible; let us chase our imagination to the heavens, or to the utmost limits of the universe; we never really advance a step beyond ourselves, nor can conceive any kind of existence, but those perceptions, which have appeared in that narrow compass.

David Hume

To me the ambiguity is, maybe our perception of ourselves is always going to be different than somebody else's perception. There will always be that disparity.

Simon Helberg

Power is the thing that holds a band of perception together, and a band of perception is life for those who perceive in that band. If the band of perception were to go away, they would not exist.

Frederick Lenz

There are very good evolutionary reasons for having religion. From early human history we have evolved a need to see God. We have a perception of ourselves and in order for that to be a true perception we have to believe in a soul within us.

Jonathan Trigell

Perception without the word, which is without thought, is one of the strangest phenomena. Then the perception is much more acute, not only with the brain, but also with all the senses. Such perception is not the fragmentary perception of the intellect nor the affair of the emotions. It can be called a total perception, and it is part of meditation.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

We can only begin to live when we conceive life as Tragedy.

William Butler Yeats

We can conceive of eternity because we cannot conceive of a cessation of time. We can conceive of infinite space because we cannot conceive of so much matter that our imagination will not stand upon the farthest star and see infinite space beyond.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Cheech and I used to call ourselves musicians; we never called ourselves comedians. We were musicians that were funny.

Tommy Chong

In the 1970s you would have had lots of black goalkeepers and defensive midfield players but never made it professionally because the perception was, 'You don't think too much, you can't play in positions of responsibility so you play on the wing or up front.' Lots were lost to the game because of the perception.