“So what’s the point of showing me something I can’t see?”
“So that you understand that just because you see something, it doesn’t mean to say it’s there. And if you don’t see something, it doesn’t mean to say it’s not there. It’s only what your senses bring to your attention.”Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 5, Mostly Harmless, ch. 17 (1992)
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Random and the bird Guide.
Quotations about:
visibility
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Almost everybody is deeply affected when some one he loves suffers from cancer. Most people are moved when they see the sufferings of unknown patients in hospitals. Yet when they read that the death-rate from cancer is such-and-such, they are as a rule only moved to momentary personal fear lest they or some one dear to them should acquire the disease. The same is true of war: people think it dreadful when their son or brother is mutilated, but they do not think it a million times as dreadful that a million people should be mutilated. A man who is full of kindliness in all personal dealings may derive his income from incitement to war or from the torture of children in “backward” countries.
All these familiar phenomena are due to the fact that sympathy is not stirred, in most people, by a merely abstract stimulus. A large proportion of the evils in the modern world would cease if this could be remedied.Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 1, ch. 2 “The Aims of Education” (1926)
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We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
[μὴ σκοπούντων ἡμῶν τὰ βλεπόμενα ἀλλὰ τὰ μὴ βλεπόμενα· τὰ γὰρ βλεπόμενα πρόσκαιρα, τὰ δὲ μὴ βλεπόμενα αἰώνια.]
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
2 Corinthians 4: 18 [KJV (1611)]
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(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:And so we have no eyes for things that are visible, but only for things that are invisible; for visible things last only for a time, and the invisible things are eternal.
[JB (1966)]What we aim for is not visible but invisible. Visible things are transitory, but invisible things eternal.
[NJB (1985)]For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.
[GNT (1992 ed.)]We don’t focus on the things that can be seen but on the things that can’t be seen. The things that can be seen don’t last, but the things that can’t be seen are eternal.
[CEB (2011)]We look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]
CLÉANTE: There’s true and false in piety, as in bravery,
And just as those whose courage shines the most
In battle, are the least inclined to boast,
So those whose hearts are truly pure and lowly
Don’t make a flashy show of being holy.[Il est de faux dévots ainsi que de faux braves:
Et, comme on ne voit pas qu’où l’honneur les conduit
Les vrais braves soient ceux qui font beaucoup de bruit,
Les bons et vrais dévots, qu’on doit suivre à la trace,
Ne sont pas ceux aussi qui font tant de grimace.]Molière (1622-1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite [Le Tartuffe, ou L’Imposteur], Act 1, sc. 6 (1669) [tr. Wilbur (1963)]
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(Source (French)). Alternate translations:There are Pretenders to Devotion as well as to Courage. And as we never find the truly Brave to be such as make much Noise wheresoever they are led by Honour, so the Good and truly Pious, who are worthy of our Imitation, are never those that deal much in Grimace.
[tr. Clitandre (1672)]There are hypocrites in religion as well as pretenders to courage; and as we never find the truly brave man make much noise where honour leads him, no more are the good and truly pious, whom we ought to follow, those who make so many grimaces.
[tr. Van Laun (1876)]Devotion, like courage, has its pretenders' and in the same way that the truly brave are not those who make the most noise where honour leads them, so the real and truly pious men whose example we ought to follow, are not those who affect such grimaces.
[tr. Wall (1879)]There are hypocrites in religion as well as pretenders to courage; and as we never find the truly brave to be such as make much noise wherever they are led. by honour, so the good and truly pious, who are worthy of our imitation, are never those who indulge in much show.
[tr. Mathew (1890)]There are pretenders to devotion as to courage; and even as those who are truly brave when honour calls are not those who make the most noise, so the good and truly pious, in whose footsteps we ought to follow, are not thoae who make so many grimaces.
[tr. Waller (1903), sc. 5]There are false heroes -- and false devotees;
And as true heroes never are the ones
Who make much noise about their deeds of honour,
Just so true devotees, whom we should follow,
Are not the ones who make so much vain show.
[tr. Page (1909)]There's false devotion like false bravery.
And as you see upon the field of honor
The really brave are not the noisiest ones,
The truly pious, whom we should imitate,
Are not the ones who show off their devotion.
[tr. Bishop (1957), sc. 5]Like courage, piety has its hypocrites.
Just as we see, where honor beckons most
The truly brave are not the ones who boast;
The truly pious people, even so,
Are not the ones who make the biggest show.
[tr. Frame (1967). sc. 5]If there's false courage, then, God knows,
There is false piety as well:
The brave man you can always tell
By how he doesn't rant and roar
And bluster, in the heat of war.
How may pious men be known?
They don't pull faces, sigh and groan.
[tr. Bolt (2002)]Look: some people pretend to be religious the way others pretend to be brave. We can recognize brave people by what honor has pushed them to do, but the truly pious, whom one should imitate, don't smirk and show off.
[tr. Steiner (2008)]The falsely devout are like the falsely brave;
And as we see that those who make the most noise
Are not the bravest when the moment comes,
So the truly good, the truly devout,
Are not the ones making all this racket about it.
[tr. Campbell (2013)]
Today a man is here; tomorrow he is gone. And when he is out of sight, he is soon out of mind.
[Hodie homo est, et cras non comparet. Cum autem sublatus fuerit ab oculis, etiam cito transit a mente.]
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471) German-Dutch priest, author
The Imitation of Christ [De Imitatione Christi], Book 1, ch. 23, v. 1 (1.23.1) (c. 1418-27) [tr. Sherley-Price (1952)]
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See Marcus Aurelius (AD 180).(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:For the common proverb is true: To-day a man , to-morrow none. And when thou art taken out of sight, thou art anon out of mind, and soon shalt thou be forgotten.
[tr. Whitford/Raynal (1530/1871)]For the common proverb is true: Today a man; tomorrow none. When you are out of sight you are soon out of mind, and soon will be forgotten.
[tr. Whitford/Gardiner (1530/1955)]To day a man, tomorrow none, and out of sight, out of mind.
[tr. Page (1639)]To Day the Man is vigorous, and gay, and flourishing, and to Morrow he is cut down, withered and gone. A very little time carries him out of our Sight, and a very little more out of our Remembrance.
[tr. Stanhope (1696; 1706 ed.)]To-day man is, and to-morrow he is not seen; And when he is once removed from the fight of others, he soon passeth from their remembrance.
[tr. Payne (1803)]To-day the man is here; to-morrow he hath disappeared. And when he is out of sight, quickly also is he out of mind.
[ed. Parker (1841)]Man is here to-day, and gone to-morrow: and when once removed from sight, soon perishes from remembrance.
[tr. Dibdin (1851)]A man is here to-day, and to-morrow he is no longer seen. And when he is taken away from the sight, he is also quickly out of mind.
[ed. Bagster (1860)]To-day man is, and to-morrow he will be seen no more. And being removed out of sight, quickly also he is out of mind.
[tr. Benham (1874)]To-day we are here, to-morrow we disappear, and when we are gone, quickly also we are out of mind.
[tr. Anon. (1901)]Today we live; tomorrow we die and are quickly forgotten.
[tr. Croft/Bolton (1940)]Today man is; and tomorrow he has vanished. But when he is taken out of sight he also soon passes out of mind.
[tr. Daplyn (1952)]Here man is today; tomorrow, he is lost to view; and once a man is out of sight, it's not long before he passes out of mind.
[tr. Knox-Oakley (1959)]A man is here today and gone tomorrow, and once he is out of our sight it is not long before he is out of our minds as well.
[tr. Knott (1962)]Today a man is and tomorrow he is gone. When he has been removed from our sight he is soon out of mind as well.
[tr. Rooney (1979)]Today we are, and tomorrow we are gone. And when we are taken out of sight, we soon pass out of mind.
[tr. Creasy (1989)]
The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) English modernist writer [b. Adeline Virginia Stephen]
“An Unwritten Novel” (1920)
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Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America — not the battlefields of Vietnam.
Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) Canadian philosopher, communication theorist, educator
In the Montreal Gazette (16 May 1975)
We all live in a televised goldfish bowl.
Kingman Brewster, Jr. (1919-1988) American educator, diplomat
Lecture, St George’s Chapel, Windsor, England (5 May 1978)
FAMOUS, adj. Conspicuously miserable.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Famous,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
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Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1884-06-28).
