“Sometimes it's a mighty struggle to know what's real and what's just . . . a mirage. You understand?”

— Tim Winton

"Yeah," I said.
Part II, Ch.1 - p.132
The Shepherd's Hut (2018)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Sometimes it's a mighty struggle to know what's real and what's just . . . a mirage. You understand?" by Tim Winton?

Tim Winton 28

Australian writer 1960

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1995

““Sometimes, you know, when we meet people, it seems to me (…) [that] it's hard to gain access to a real conversation. It's almost like it takes one of us to just be real, even if it's to say "you know, I don't really know what to say to you." Or to say no. Sometimes you have to say no, or to set a boundary.””

Adyashanti (1962) Spiritual teacher

The Basic Teachings - Part 3: Orientation to the Teaching (2010), Wake Up San Francisco event (2015)

“Quantification, like surgery, is an excellent thing in the right place, but a very bad topic for obsession. Unless you know just what you are counting--unless you are sure that the things counted are standard units--and unless you understand what is proved by results of your counting, quantifying provide you only with the outward show of science, a mirage, never the oasis.”

Mary Midgley (1919–2018) British philosopher and ethicist

Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1979). 87-88.
Context: The future will not "be with" anybody in the sense of falling to them as a conquest. The need for many different methods is not going to go away, dissolved in a quasi-physical heaven where all serious work is quantitative... Quantification, like surgery, is an excellent thing in the right place, but a very bad topic for obsession. Unless you know just what you are counting--unless you are sure that the things counted are standard units--and unless you understand what is proved by results of your counting, quantifying provide you only with the outward show of science, a mirage, never the oasis.