
“Tudo depende de como vemos as coisas e não de como elas são.”
Variante: Tudo depende de como olhamos para as coisas, e não de como elas são em si mesmas.
We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.
Seduction of the minotaur - página 145, Anaïs Nin - Swallow Press, 1961 - 136 páginas
Variante: Nós não vemos as coisas como elas são, vemo-las como nós somos.
We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.
The Seduction of the Minotaur (1961); the documentation of the conflicting citations available on this page ( HNet http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Judaic&month=1108&msg=RizwZWCgeA8woVU9mNOEYQ) seems very thorough, and in the end attributes the quote to this novel, which includes the line:
Lillian was reminded of the talmudic words: "We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are."
With Nin's description of the statement as "Talmudic" it afterwards began to be attributed to the Jewish Talmud, without any cited version or passage.
Similar statements appear in You Can Negotiate Anything (1982) by Herb Cohen: "You and I do not see things as they are. We see things as we are"; and in Awareness (1992) by Anthony de Mello: "We see people and things not as they are, but as we are".
Another similar statement without cited source is also attributed to Nin https://web.archive.org/web/20050322041559/http://learn-gs.org/learningctr/tutorial/4.html: We see the world as "we" are, not as "it" is; because it is the "I" behind the "eye" that does the seeing.
Disputed
Variante: We don't see people as they are. We see people as we are.
Fonte: Little Birds
“Tudo depende de como vemos as coisas e não de como elas são.”
Variante: Tudo depende de como olhamos para as coisas, e não de como elas são em si mesmas.
If we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves share in the guilt.
Black Beauty (1877), Chapter 38: Dolly and a Real Gentleman
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
Walden - Página 158, Henry David Thoreau - Plain Label Books, 1968, ISBN 1603037470, 9781603037471 - 294 páginas
Walden