Is life all about perceptions?

(1) Hate the sin, not the sinner. ~ by Gandhi
(2) Hate the sin, and love the sinner ~ by Gandhi
(3) Hate the sin, but love the sinner ~ a traditional Christian proverb

It all started with the first quote posted by a friend on FB. When I explored more about the quote, I saw the second one also as Gandhi's quote. Finally, I found that it was a misattribution to Gandhi from 1990s. And the same source says that "Hate the sin, but love the sinner" is a traditional Christian Proverb. Gandhi's sayings about forgiveness such as "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." and description of seven social sins "Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice." could have led people to misattribution (if that is true).

In this note my intention is NOT to do more research on the source of this quote or rather these quotes. I just would like to record the fact that "how I perceive a statement varies". I will refer to them with the numbers as my interest is to categorize them as neither quote nor proverbs. I perceived (1) as importance of People & Issue separation; (2) as importance of forgiveness and (3) - Oh, no wonder, it is a proverb. I wished to validate (1) and (2) because I perceived them as the words by a human being. Somehow I do not want to validate (3).

(1) P & I separation is important to me because the separation help me move on with the cause of the problem. It made me easy to implement the changes if I know issues or person is the cause of resistance. The judiciary punishes a person for theft, not for being a thief as it is one's right to be considered as innocent until proven guilty. Even if he/she has been categorized as a "thief" for that case, he/she would be considered as innocent (until proven guilty again) if he/she had a second case. Evidence is needed to punish this person for the second case too. It is more difficult to suppress thievery than the thieves. Theft rate will not be declined unless thieves are punished. However, thieves will still reappear if the root cause of theft is unrectified. The line between P&I is so thin yet important to get them separated. Unfortunately, I grew up not clearly understanding between the two. That is why it is very difficult to receive criticism. A politically correct term for criticism could be FEEDBACK ;) I wasn't sure if it means I am the problem or my action is. I had to try hard and still trying to separate between the two.

(2) Forgiveness didn't sound so familiar to me. It is because I used to lead a simplified life. A simplified life is different from a simple life. Things are just so complicated that I needed to simplify to make my life easier. Teachings and happenings around me gave me opposite signals. Ethical values did not seem to be practical. Thus I unknowingly chose to be simpleminded. Since I didn't blame anyone, I didn't have to learn forgiveness. When I understand neither blaming nor forgiving, I suspect the existence of forgiveness.

Now I think I reached to a little less complicated state of mind. I started to attempt seeing things clearly. I began to learn the difference between blame and responsibility. I tried to see the causes and effects. Maybe forgiveness helps the blame faded in time. What could I use to erase being lack of responsibility? I don't think forgiveness works in this case.

(3) was just a passer by to me. Thus I don't really think through it.

See the difference? The similar statements can give me different perceptions just by a different word in it or by giving different sources. Is life all about perceptions?