Quotes: Perspective
4 quotes on this theme, each with its source and insight
The quotes
“Everything seems impossible And everything seems possible.”
Source: Possibility (opening of the poem), presented on the author's official website, no date · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The couplet appears in this exact form as the opening of the poem "Possibility" on Dejan Stojanović's official website.
- What remains uncertain
- No firm record was found of the poem's first printed publication or an original date of appearance.
The two-line couplet captures how our outlook shapes reality: the same world can feel utterly closed or freshly open. Printed as the opening of the poem "Possibility" on Stojanović's site, the lines hinge on "seems"—possibility is shown as an attitude and a decision, not a promise.
“What if the way we perceive a problem is already part of the problem?”
Source: Year of Distraction (lecture, 2011, ~1:07) · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- A closely matching sentence appears in Žižek’s 2011 lecture Year of Distraction: he says philosophy should show how the way we perceive a problem can be itself part of a problem.
- What remains uncertain
- The precise short wording circulating online is a condensed paraphrase; no primary source for that exact sentence has been located, and it echoes Stephen R. Covey’s earlier phrasing.
Žižek prompts us to doubt the frame, not only the answers: the way a problem is perceived can carry ideological assumptions that help reproduce it. This idea is traced to his lecture Year of Distraction (2011) and urges reframing before proposing fixes.
“When people look at clouds they do not see their real shape, which is no shape at all, or maybe every shape, because they are constantly changing. They see whatever it is that their heart yearns for.”
Source: A General Theory of Oblivion, 2012 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The observation appears in José Eduardo Agualusa's novel A General Theory of Oblivion (Teoria Geral do Esquecimento) and is reliably attributed to him.
The cloud image shows that perception is shaped by feeling: when forms are indeterminate, people supply the outline their heart wants. In Agualusa's novel this observation ties private longing to collective memory and the instability of what we call reality.
“Our people say no condition is permanent, Mr. Edwards. Good times must come to an end, just like bad times, whether we want it or not.”
Source: Behold the Dreamers, 2016 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording appears in Imbolo Mbue's novel Behold the Dreamers (2016), spoken by the character Jende Jonga to Clark Edwards.
- What remains uncertain
- Verified as a line from the novel; the sentence is dialogue by a fictional character, not a direct statement by Mbue herself.
The line states a hard-earned wisdom: circumstances change. Spoken by Jende Jonga as he parts from Clark Edwards, it frames both personal loss and fragile privilege during the 2007–08 financial collapse and carries communal Cameroonian resonance.