Quotes About Observation

Sandra stood by, quietly amused: she wore a sugar pink track suit with matching plastic hairslides in the shape of elephants. Edward could see quite clearly behind her shoulder, like the aura visible to spiritualists, the woman she would be in thirty years time. There is probably nothing to be done about people, he thought, nothing at all, nor ever has been: processed, from the cradle to the grave. Most neither know nor care, which makes it worse.

All my life, she thought, I have let things pass me by.

There are some supremely agreeable moments in life that are best savoured alone -- the first barefoot step into a cold sea, the reading of certain books, the revelation that it has snowed in the night, waking up on one's birthday... And others the full wonder of which can only be achieved if someone else is there to observe.

For any spirit of scientific bent, seeing more in something that is actually there is actually to see less. What you add in substance, you take away in spirit.

It has often been said that the more unusual the murder the easier it is to solve, but this is a theory I don't believe. Nothing is easy, nothing is simple, and you should think of your investigations as a complicated experiment: look at what remains constant and look at what changes, ask the right questions and don't be afraid of wrong answers, and above all rely on observation and rely on experience.

He saw the sunlight leave the grass like an eye suddenly closed.

The World makes its own Demons, which then the People see.

The quickness of his hand was determined by the quickness of his eye.

The Vedas, four books of learning composed in North India, in the period 1000–500 BC, are named from the Sanskrit root vid, meaning "knowledge". This same root occurs in Old Irish as uid, meaning "observation, perception and knowledge". Most people will immediately recognise it as one of the two roots of the compound Celtic word Druid – dru-vid, arguably meaning "thorough knowledge".

Tremendous beauty and tremendous ugliness puts you on the outside of things.

The camera observed me, but there was nothing in my bag except a pashmina, purse, and Lorazepam. I carried emptiness. Doors opened. Another camera recorded my progress. Doubtless there were thousands of my days repeated thus, interred digitally in limbo. I ascended two steps with nothing to look forward to

She thought: When we are two, they do not notice us. They think us a match. What wisdom does a mob have? It is a hydra, an organism, stupid or dangerous in much of its behaviour, but could it have, in spite of this, a proper judgement about which of its component parts fit best together?

They watched the flying foxes wheel above them, like shadows of thoughts, things so indistinct they would not exist without two witnesses.

to live in perpetual darkness allows one to see things more clearly, if that is not a contradiction in terms. It has allowed me to look into men's souls more deeply, to see them for what they are and not what they present to the world. It has been a most illuminating experience.

It is incumbent on the people who work with them to observe them, to find out how they work, and to adapt themselves to what makes their bosses most effective. This, in fact, is the secret of "managing" the boss.

Executives may become blind to everything that is perception (i.e., event) rather than fact (i.e., after the event).

Nancy took her tiny little baby and held him down toward Norton. Look Norton, she said, This is a baby. Norton looked up at Charlie, took him in, and sort of nodded as if assimilating the information. There was a very long pause, and then I heard Nancy gulp. You've finally done it, she said to me. What? I wanted to know. Most mothers would have said, 'Look, Charlie, this is a cat.' I started to laugh. Not with Norton, I said.

Science works by taking theoretical ideas and trying to find ways to expose them to observation. The scientific strategy is to construe ideas, to embed them in surrounding conceptual frameworks, and to develop them, in such a way that this exposure is possible even in the case of the most general and ambitious hypotheses about the universe.

Much more important is noticing—and helping the students notice—what they are doing well, particularly the leading edge of what is going well. This leading edge is where the student has reached beyond herself, stretching what she knows just beyond its limit, producing something that is partly correct. This is the launching pad for new learning.

She was a two-seater and I fired five rounds into her. She burst into flames and fell upside down. Although she dropped like a stone, I saw her observer climb out of his seat and jump clear of the flames. He must have preferred that kind of death to the chance of being roasted.3 Captain Albert Ball, 60 Squadron, RFC

a foreigner often feels most foreign while witnessing the early education of another culture.

Usually I said nothing at all; as a waiguoren I was often most comfortable when I was listening.

The eye of the poet sees less clearly, but sees farther than the eye of the scientist.

Live a life of love, especially the love of God, and observe the joy of it. Live a life of lovelessness and observe the joylessness of it.