Quotes About Observation

I study the people in the class, in a somewhat dreamy math-soundtracked daze.

I look at the world and I see absurdity all around me. People do strange things constantly, to the point that, for the most part, we manage not to see it.

I don't necessarily love rotting bodies, but there's a texture to a rotting body that is un-believable. Have you ever seen a little rotted animal? I love looking at those things, just as much as I like to look at a close-up of some tree bark, or a small bug, or a cup of coffee, or a piece of pie. You get in close and the textures are wonderful.

My childhood was elegant homes, tree-lined streets, the milkman, building backyard forts, droning airplanes, blue skies, picket fences, green grass, cherry trees. Middle America as it's supposed to be. But on the cherry tree, there's this pitch oozing out – some black, some yellow – and millions of red ants crawling all over it. I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath.

Darwin hat a wonderful scientific habit of noticing facts that seemed inconsistent with his theories.

Far out where the gulf deepens, small waves kick up, gather, then collapse, and new ones replace them; and this, even as he watches, repeats itself, and will do endlessly whether he is here or not to observe it.

In the meantime: (1) be direct; (2) remember that, being smarter than men, women respond to courtesy and kindness; (3) if you want to know what kind of a wife someone will make, observe her around her father and mother; (4) as to who gets out of the elevator first, I just can't help you.

We can only interpret the behavior of others through the screen we create.

How was her crumbcake? oh.. from the store... .......

One of the things people generally admire about Van Gogh, even though they were not always aware of it, was the way he could make even a chair seem to have anxiety in it.

Standing to one side watching the politicians and the journalists and the cameras is one of the factory's owners, John Kernahan, who tells me Sulo's annual turnover is $85 million. So the carbon tax? "It's not a biggie.

One hour of going to see things with your own eyes is more worthwhile than twenty hours of talking about things.

He was a God who observed without intervening in this hell he created -Carlisle

i've heard this called st. peter's square, arlene said. but it isn't square. it's oval.

self-awareness is increased much more rapidly by observing feelings rather than thoughts. The thoughts associated with even one feeling may literally run into the thousands. The understanding of the underlying emotion and its correct handling is, therefore, more rewarding and less time-consuming than dealing with one's thoughts.

Artists are artists whether they produce or not. None of it requires much more than hanging out.

There is no better way to conceal oneself than by listening to others.

Often I'd take out my magnifying glass and stare into the chaos that was her face.

A zoo is a good place to make a spectacle of yourself, as the people around you have creepier, more photogenic things to look at.

May I bring you a drink to go with those warm nuts, Mr. Sedaris? this woman looking after me asked - this as the people in coach were still boarding. The looks they gave me as they passed were the looks I give when the door of a limousine opens. You always expect to see a movie star, or, at the very least, some better dressed than you, but time and time again it's just a sloppy nobody. Thus the look, which translates to, Fuck you, Sloppy Nobody, for making me turn my head.

I should be used to the way Americans dress when traveling, yet it still manages to amaze me. It's as if the person next to you had been washing shoe polish off a pig, then suddenly threw down his sponge saying, "Fuck this. I'm going to Los Angeles!

That's the thing with a diary, though. In order to record your life, you sort of need to live it. Not at your desk, but beyond it. Out in the world where it's so beautiful and complex and painful that sometimes you just need to sit down and write about it.

Besides, if I wanted to hear people speaking wall-to-wall French, all I had to do was remove my headphones and participate in what is known as 'real life,' a concept as uninviting as a shampoo cocktail.

I see you that have a little swimming mouse