Quotes About Observation

Andrei walked a lot: this was the best and most pleasant state for him--to be walking, to move no matter where. Thoughts are simpler when you walk, and you can amuse them with what you see along the way

There's a classic appeal in the outsider as the central character of fiction, because that person is in the position to be the observer. People who are very active are not as observant. They don't see as much and they don't often think as much. They're too busy doing.

How do we define consciousness, or what has been called the human soul or the spirit, if it can't be quantified as matter or a particle?... it can be quantified or observed just by a process of elimination.

There is an abiding beauty which may be appreciated by those who will see things as they are and who will ask for no reward except to see.

Have you ever seen the dawn? Not a dawn groggy with lack of sleep or hectic with mindless obligations and you about to rush off on an early adventure or business, but full of deep silence and absolute clarity of perception? A dawning which you truly observe, degree by degree. It is the most amazing moment of birth. And more than anything it can spur you to action. Have a burning day.

HL Mencken who wrote that the relationship of a journalist to a politician should be that of a dog to a lamppost.

Learn to see things as they really are, not as we imagine they are.

How long must a fish study to understand human motivation?

He watched the results, using them to design new experiments. He was guided by what he saw rather than by what he wanted to believe.

if you watch trillions of things, you will often see one-in-a-million coincidences.

Sometimes I still forget to look for the gentler parts of her. For so long all I saw was the strength, standing out like the wiry muscles in her arms or the black ink marking her collarbone with flight.

A writer should always have some profession which brings him into close contact with the reality's of life.

Most had faded to a light jade by now...all except Chandra, I noted, with more than a little satisfaction. She was still a dazzling Day-Glo emerald, and I gave a little finger wave from across the room. She merely returned the finger.

Gerade als er in einigen Bogenlinien auf die Portierloge zusteuerte, stieß die Drehtür ein merkwürdiges Individuum in die Vorhalle" (S.13)

Referring to the piano's natural shape) Isn't it a shame when those big fat opera singers lean against the pianos and bend them?

Nogle ting er bedre i Sverige end i Danmark. De har bedre naboer.

True philosophy invents nothing; it merely establishes and describes what is.

We see past time in a telescope and present time in a microscope. Hence the apparent enormities of the present.

Those who do not weep, do not see.

The so-called mysteries of quantum mechanics are in its philosophical interpretation, not in its mathematics.

They've made a peace treaty of their own', Eva used to say, when we passed an illuminated window. (In reference to the strict German laws on light blackouts.)

Janet Flanner made an interesting observation midway through the year [1947]: in Paris, stores frequented by women, the biggest selling goods were, unsurprisingly, ... But the second item they were ordering was prams, a biological vote of confidence in the future.

Once a policeman, always a policeman; and what does a policeman do but present evidence dramatically and wait for reactions from interviewees?

A man long accustomed to admire his wife in general, seldom pauses to admire her in a particular gown or attitude, unless his attention is directed to her by the appreciative gaze of another man.