The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight.

John Berger
About This Quote

The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. It is an old story which illustrates this point. On a clear day, you can see the sun go down in the west, but it is still setting. It hasn’t gone down yet. But it always is.”

Source: Ways Of Seeing

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you. - Elbert Hubbard

  2. The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends. - Friedrich Nietzsche

  3. Ur be the things I am wiser to know: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe. Four be the things I'd been better without: Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt. Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content, and sufficient champagne. Three be the... - Dorothy Parker

  4. The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love. - Meister Eckhart

  5. Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth.] - Gautama Buddha

More Quotes By John Berger
  1. Autobiography begins with a sense of being alone. It is an orphan form.

  2. A man's death makes everything certain about him. Of course, secrets may die with him. And of course, a hundred years later somebody looking through some papers may discover a fact which throws a totally different light on his life and of which all the...

  3. My heart born nakedwas swaddled in lullabies. Later alone it worepoems for clothes. Like a shirt I carried on my backthe poetry I had read. So I lived for half a centuryuntil wordlessly we met. From my shirt on the back of the chair I...

  4. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight.

  5. When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story's voice makes everything...

Related Topics