“What we see is not what we see but what we are.”

<p>Original: Viajar? Para viajar basta existir. [...] Para quê viajar? Em Madrid, em Berlim, na Pérsia, na China, nos Pólos ambos, onde estaria eu senão em mim mesmo, e no tipo e género das minhas sensações?</p><p>A vida é o que fazemos dela. As viagens são os viajantes. O que vemos não é o que vemos, senão o que somos.</p>
Ibid., p. 360
The Book of Disquiet
Context: p>To travel? In order to travel it's enough to be. [... ] Why travel? In Madrid, in Berlin, in Persia, in China, at the Poles both, where would I be but in myself, and in the sort and kind of my sensations?Life is what we make of it. Travels are travellers. What we see is not what we see but what we are.</p

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What we see is not what we see but what we are." by Fernando Pessoa?
Fernando Pessoa photo
Fernando Pessoa 288
Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publi… 1888–1935

Related quotes

Jean Piaget photo

“What we see changes what we know. What we know changes what we see.”

Jean Piaget (1896–1980) Swiss psychologist, biologist, logician, philosopher & academic
Fernando Pessoa photo

“Life is what we make of it. Travel is the traveler. What we see isn't what we see but what we are.”

Original: (pt) Viajar? Para viajar basta existir. [...] Para quê viajar? Em Madrid, em Berlim, na Pérsia, na China, nos Pólos ambos, onde estaria eu senão em mim mesmo, e no tipo e género das minhas sensações?

A vida é o que fazemos dela. As viagens são os viajantes. O que vemos não é o que vemos, senão o que somos.
Source: The Book of Disquiet, p. 360
Context: To travel? In order to travel it's enough to be. […] Why travel? In Madrid, in Berlin, in Persia, in China, at the Poles both, where would I be but in myself, and in the sort and kind of my sensations?

Life is what we make of it. Travels are travellers. What we see is not what we see but what we are.

Alfre Woodard photo

“…When we see a film, half of what we see is what we bring to it…”

Alfre Woodard (1952) American film, stage, and television actress

On how audiences receive a film (such as the film 12 Years a Slave in which Woodard starred in) in “In Praise of the One-Scene Performance: An Interview with Alfre Woodard” https://www.popmatters.com/176250-in-praise-of-the-one-scene-performance-an-interview-with-alfre-wooda-2495711026.html in Pop Matters (2013 Nov 7)

Sharon Shinn photo

“Sometimes we become what we see. Sometimes we take what we see and make it the model for what we refuse to become.”

Sharon Shinn (1957) American science fiction writer

Source: Summers at Castle Auburn

Adrienne Rich photo

“What we see, we see
and seeing is changing”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist
John Lancaster Spalding photo

“We do not see rightly until we learn to eliminate what we expect or wish to see from what we really see.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 244

Jodi Picoult photo
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury photo

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”

John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury (1834–1913) British banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath
Wallace Stevens photo

“We reason of these things with later reason
And we make of what we see, what we see clearly
And have seen, a place dependent on ourselves.”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942), It Must Give Pleasure

Anthony de Mello photo

“The Master is not concerned with what we believe — only with what we see.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

Non-Instruction
One Minute Wisdom (1989)