“We usually see only the things we are looking for — so much so that we sometimes see them where they are not.”

—  Eric Hoffer

Section 237
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

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Eric Hoffer photo
Eric Hoffer 240
American philosopher 1898–1983

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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.
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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
Variant: We don't see people as they are. We see people as we are.
Source: Little Birds

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