Quotable Quotes on Vision

It is the rule that acute diseases of the lungs, stomach,
and other parts of the body tend to complete recovery,
and the same fact is true of the eye.
William H. Bates, M.D., 1894

When a patient says he has no time to practise, he is mistaken.
He has all the time there is to use his eyes in the right way,
or he can use them in the wrong way.
He has just as much time to use his eyes properly
as he has to use them improperly.
William H Bates, M.D., Better Eyesight magazine, May 1924

On a tomb in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence
was found an inscription which read:
"Here lies Salvino degli Armati, Inventor of Spectacles.
May God pardon him his sins."
Nuova Enciclopedia Italiana, Sixth Edition

While it is true that eyeglasses have brought to some people improved vision and relief from pain and discomfort, they have been to others simply an added torture, they always do more or less harm, and at their best they never improve the vision to normal.
William H Bates, M.D., Perfect Sight Without Glasses, page 81

[Visual] relaxation cannot be obtained by any sort of effort. It is fundamental that patients should understand this; for so long as they think, consciously or unconsciously, that relief from strain may be obtained by another strain their cure will be delayed.
William H Bates, M.D., Perfect Sight Without Glasses, page 113

It has been demonstrated in thousands of cases that all abnormal action of the external muscles of the eyeball is accompanied by a strain or effort to see, and that with the relief of this strain the action of the muscles becomes normal and all errors of refraction disappear.
William H Bates, M.D., Perfect Sight Without Glasses, page 89

The ways in which people strain to see are infinite, and the
methods used to relieve the strain must be almost equally varied.
Whatever the method that brings most relief, however,
the end is always the same, namely relaxation.
William H Bates, M.D., Perfect Sight Without Glasses, page 101

The eye with normal sight never tries to see.
If for any reason, such as the dimness of the light,
or the distance of the object,
it cannot see a particular point, it shifts to another.
It never tries to bring out the point by staring at it,
as the eye with imperfect sight is constantly doing.
William H Bates, M.D., Perfect Sight Without Glasses, page 107

The act of seeing is passive. Things are seen, just as they are felt, or
heard, or tasted, without effort or volition on the part of the subject.
When sight is perfect the letters on the test card are waiting,
perfectly black and perfectly distinct, to be recognized.
William H Bates, M.D., Perfect Sight Without Glasses, page 108

I question not my corporeal or vegetative eye any more than I would question a window concerning a sight. I look thro it and not with it.
William Blake, Poet

Mental strain of any kind always produces a conscious or unconscious eyestrain and if the strain takes the form of an effort to see,
an error of refraction is always produced.
William H Bates, M.D., Perfect Sight Without Glasses, page 109

We see very largely with the mind,
and only partly with the eyes.
The phenomena of vision depend upon the mind's interpretation
of the impression upon the retina.
What we see is not that impression,
but our own interpretation of it.
William H Bates, M.D., Perfect Sight Without Glasses, page 148

When one's mind is under a strain one unconsciously tightens the muscles which encircle the eyeball, and consequently squeeze it out of shape and out of focus.
But when the mind is at rest these muscles are relaxed and the eyeball is allowed to assume its proper shape and focus.
William H Bates, M.D., Better Eyesight magazine, May 1923

Most of my patients always do better when they have someone with perfect sight to encourage them by their example or advice.
William H Bates, M.D., Better Eyesight magazine, July 1922

It is the things that we stop doing that promote the memory of perfect sight. We do not need to practice something new nor learn by mental training how to do something that we have never done before. When a patient is convinced of these facts [he realizes that] using his eyes correctly is so much easier and brings renewed vision.
William H Bates, M.D., Better Eyesight magazine, April 1927

Today glasses are prescribed for young and old generally without any previous effort to remedy the defects which are supposed to make them necessary, while at the same time it is common knowledge that glasses do not in themselves do our eyes any intrinsic good.
R Brooks Simpkins, New Light on the Eyes, p77, 1958

A great many people spend more time hunting bargains in eyeglasses, and in getting the kind of rims adapted to their particular style of beauty, than it would take to cure their eyes by following the method outlined along the lines of common sense.
Minnie E. Marvin, Better Eyesight magazine, September 1923

It is a mistake to believe that even though the glasses do no good they cannot do harm. Glasses keep up the strain. A person wearing glasses for myopia has to strain all the time in order to make the eyeball elongated sufficiently to fit the glasses.
William H Bates, M.D., Better Eyesight magazine, September 1922

Over half the people in the United States wear corrective lenses,
and almost all of them are capable of seeing much more clearly -
if they would only experiment with changing their ideas about vision.
Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D., Take off your glasses and see, page 6

The suspicion began to dawn on me slowly that among the causes of
progressive myopia it might be necessary to list concave (minus) lenses themselves. From many articles that have appeared in the past on the subject of 'Optical Poison', a familiar term a decade ago, many other optometrists appear to have the same idea.
Samuel Druker of Brooklyn, NY, in the Optical Journal of March 15, 1946

I've found, however, that real change only comes when we let go of
the struggle, when we stop trying, and that the greatest key to
healing our vision is also the simplest one:
expanding our awareness.
Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D., Take off your glasses and see, page 68

From my experience in this land of myopes (i.e. China) I have formed strong prejudices against the evil of weak minus prescriptions in all ages.
C.P. Rakusen, O.D., Shanghai, China

Myopia, in more than ninety-five percent of cases,
begins between five and ten years of age.
It increases largely because the myopic eye is given a minus lens.
Dr. Rasmussen

The use of compensatory lenses (glasses and contacts) to treat or neutralize the symptoms does not correct the problem. The current education and training of eye care practitioners discourages preventive and remedial treatment..
Ray Gottlieb, O.D., Ph.D., Journal of Optometry and Visual Development, 1982

I would like to have a law established forbidding the prescribing
of minus glasses without extenuating circumstances.
Neville Schuller, vision specialist of Toronto, Canada, 1938

I have yet to hear of a research paper confirming the beneficial effect of prescribing compensatory lenses. I am sure most optometrists will confirm the clinical observation that patients who receive compensatory lenses for full time wear are usually the ones
who need a stronger prescription every year.
Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D.

Spectacle lenses can create their own problems. There are frequently ignored patterns of addiction to minus lenses. The typical prescription tends to overpower and fatigue the visual system and what is often a transient condition becomes a lifelong situation, which is likely to deteriorate with time.
S. Gallup

All things were the same in my little bedroom yet totally changed.
Still sitting in wonder on the edge of my narrow bed, one of the first things I realized was that the focus of my sight seemed to have changed; it had sharpened to an infinitely small point which moved ceaselessly in paths totally free of the old accustomed ones, as if flowing from a new source.
Flora Courtois, An Experience of Enlightenment, 1986

Eyestrain can be cured so easily in the average child by Dr. Bates' method that it should be against the law to fit children with glasses.
Paul Hotson, OD, Better Eyesight magazine, December 1925

If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true
was really true, there would be little hope of advance.
Orville Wright

If God had wanted us to dwell on mistakes made in the past,
we would have been given eyes in the back of our head.
Unknown source

Optometrists are familiar with comments from patients
that vision seems to improve after a period
of time without refractive corrections.
David A. Atchison, in Vision Research 45 (2005) p1973

Quotable Quotes on Vision

Are you ready for better vision? Do you want to know how to improve eyesight naturally? Check out the classes offered here!

Are you ready for better vision?
Do you want to know how to improve eyesight naturally?
Check out the classes offered here!