Notes from Wikiquote
Lillian was reminded of the talmudic words: "We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are." | With Nin's description of the statement as "Talmudic" it afterwards began to be attributed to the Jewish Talmud, without any cited version or passage. | Similar statements appear in You Can Negotiate Anything (1982) by Herb Cohen: "You and I do not see things as they are. We see things as we are"; and in Awareness (1992) by Anthony de Mello: "We see people and things not as they are, but as we are". | Another similar statement without cited source is also attributed to Nin: We see the world as "we" are, not as "it" is; because it is the "I" behind the "eye" that does the seeing.