Quotes About Discernment

Taste - as in personal preference, discernment - is subjective. It's emphemeral, shaped by trends and fads. It's one part mouth and nose, two parts ego.

I always said there were plenty of things going on here, right under our noses, that we couldn't see, she said, holding out her apron. I don't see with my nose, I remarked. What have you got there?

A man is blind to a thousand minute circumstances, which call forth a woman's sedulous attention.

Knowledge, I suppose, blocked the gates of vision.

Sometimes I have endeavoured to discover what quality it is which he possesses that elevates him so immeasurably above any other person I ever knew. I believe it to be an intuitive discernment, a quick but never-failing power of judgment, a penetration into the causes of things, unequalled for clearness and precision; add to this a facility of expression and a voice whose varied intonations are soul-subduing music.

How do you tell a scribe from a prophet . . .? The prophets love the people they chastise.

It is not wise to judge others based on your own preconceptions and by their appearances.

feet can tell you whether a person is interested or not; how the movement of the eyes can determine whether a person is a visual, kinesthetic, or auditory thinker; and how to determine if a person is lying. Let's

She'll be able to sense if you just want to sleep with her, or if you are trying to sell her something, or if you're genuinely a friendly person just looking to meet people. 

psychic abilities", or ability to read people based

ability to read people based

based on the way they look. If

If you glance at someone and immediately think, "Oh, that person looks like a teacher," or "that person looks like they were in the military," or "that person looks like they are an actor," tell them that.

The middle ages did not care much for alphabetical order, because they were committed to rational order. To the medieval mind, the universe [is] a harmonious whole whose parts are related to one another. It was the responsibility of the author or scholar to discern these rational relationships -- of hierarchy, or of chronology, or of similarities and differences, and so forth.

To distinguish between the curved and the straight. —Horace (ca. 30 B.C.)

Situations and people are a lot like books. Always take time to read them, pause, and then read again. Make sure you are not just judging it by the cover.

Avery had sixth and seventh and eighth senses and could tell more from the way someone stood or said see you later than Mel could if she stole the person's diary and read it cover to cover.

Jim, I studied engineering in college. When I see things, I see them.

What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me?

An honest man does not desire until he has identified the object of his desire. He

hide your strength and bide your time.

Sometimes you get a feeling about someone the minute you meet them. You just know who they are, and what they're all about.

The universe does not reveal itself to undergraduates or fools: This is the entire premise of higher education.

By a man's fingernails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boots, by his trouser-knees, by the calluses of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuffs, by his movements—by each of these things a man's calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent enquirer in any case is almost inconceivable. SHERLOCK HOLMES, 1892