“They do not see what they look at, hence they know not what they do.”
Source: Echoes from the Bottomless Well (1985), p. 124
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Frederick Franck 30
Dutch painter 1909–2006Related quotes
“We do not know what the unicorn looks like.”
Book of Imaginary Beings (1957), as translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni
Context: It is universally held that the unicorn is a supernatural being and of auspicious omen; so say the odes, the annals, the biographies of worthies, and other texts whose authority is unimpeachable. Even village women and children know that the unicorn is a lucky sign. But this animal does not figure among the barnyard animals, it is not always easy to come across, it does not lend itself to zoological classification. Nor is it like the horse or bull, the wolf or deer. In such circumstances we may be face to face with a unicorn and not know for sure that we are. We know that a certain animal with a mane is a horse and that a certain animal with horns is a bull. We do not know what the unicorn looks like.
Source: Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
“Keys to getting things done: know what "done" means & what "doing" looks like.”
14 January 2012 https://twitter.com/gtdguy/status/158292486358446081
Official Twitter profile (@gtdguy) https://twitter.com/gtdguy
“Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.”
letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
Source: Two Hundred Million Americans in Search of a Government (1969), p. 35
Letter to Oskar Pollak (8 November 1903); cited from Briefe, 1902-1924 (1958) edited by [Max Brod]], p. 27<!-- New York: Schocken --> ; translation from Franz Kafka, Representative Man (1991) by Frederick R. Karl, p. 98 <!-- New York: Ticknor & Fields -->
Context: We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours? And if I were to cast myself down before you and weep and tell you, what more would you know about me than you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.
