"The common eye sees only the outside..." - Quote by Mark Twain
The common eye sees only the outside of things, and judges by that, but the seeing eye pierces through and reads the heart and the soul, finding there capacities which the outside didn't indicate or promise, and which the other kind of eye couldn't detect.
More by Mark Twain
“Stars and shadows ain't good to see by.”
“I do not want Michael Angelo for breakfast-but for luncheon-for dinner- for tea-for supper-for between meals.”
“Humor is the great thing, the saving thing after all. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations, and resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.”
More on Perception
“A friend said to me, "I think the weather is trippy." I said, "No, man, it's not the weather that's trippy, perhaps it's the way we perceive it." And then I realized I just should have said, "Yeah."”
“Women see better than men. Men see lazily, if they do not expect to act. Women see quite without any wish to act.”
“But bear in mind your lover's wageIs what your looking-glass can show,And that he will turn green with rageAt all that is not pictured there.”
More on Judgment
“A spider is proud when it has caught a fly; one man when he has caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another when he has taken wild boars, and another when he has taken bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians. Are not these robbers, if you examine their opinions?”
“They who are to be judges must also be performers.”
“There is nothing that deceives us more than our own judgment when used to give an opinion on our own works. It is sound in judging the work of our enemies but not that of our friends, for hate and love are two of the most powerfully motivating factors found among living things.”