Those who take a superficial and unreflecting view of things observe the outward appearance of anything they meet, e.g. of a man, and then trouble themselves no more about him. The view they have taken of the bulk of his body is enough to make them think that they know all about him. But the penetrating and scientific mind will not trust to the eyes alone the task of taking the measure of reality; it will not stop at appearances, nor count that which is not seen among unrealities. It inquires into the qualities of the man's soul.
The most important thing I learned on [[w:Tralfamadore|] was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. Allmoments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever. When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "So it goes."
A man of sense can artifice disdain, As men of wealth may venture to go plain. * * * * * * I find the fool when I behold the screen, For 'tis the wise man's interest to be seen.
Latin version of the Greek maxim, found in Æschylus, Siege of Thebes.
Non teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum.
Do not hold everything as gold which shines like gold.
Alanus de Insulis, Parabolæ, in Winchester College Hall-book of 1401–2.
O wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel's as ithers see us! It wad fræ monie a blunder free us. And foolish notion; What airs in dress and gait wad lea'e us, And ev'n devotion!
We understood Her by her sight; her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought. That one might almost say her body thought.
John Donne, Funeral Elegies, Of the Progress of the Soul, by occasion of the Religious Death of Mistress Elizabeth Drury.
Non semper ea sunt, quæ videntur; decipit Frons prima multos: rara mens intelligit Quod interiore condidit cura angulo.
Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of few perceives what has been carefully hidden in the recesses of the mind.
Of the terrible doubt of appearances, Of the uncertainty after all, that we may-be deluded, That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all, That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only. May-be the things I perceive, the animals, plants, men, hills, shining and flowing waters, The skies of day and night, colors, densities, forms, may-be these are (as doubtless they are) only apparitions, and the real something has yet to be known.
Walt Whitman, Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances.