Quotes About Observation

Writing Down the Bones

Scuse me, lady, but I'm Wisp, 'cause that's all I am, a wisp of a thing, not much good for changing a thing in the world, said the boy for when he stepped inside, the light from the grimy window gave her a good view of his anxious, pointed little face.

The eyes of a vengeful man miss few details he can turn to advantage.

chin and nose. He wore the cap tilted at such an angle that the lower half of his face was visible, and his gap-toothed smile was the first thing one saw of him.

I do not always observe the rules of society, but I am quite aware of what they are!

Who knows the colors someone else sees?

It is not necessarily what is but what is perceived that society will judge.

Which was worse, to intrude or to pretend not to have seen, because you had no idea what to do?

After that it would be a matter of other sources for general information, the nearest public house which the male servants might occasionally frequent, errand and delivery boys, street peddlers and crossing sweepers who might have an observant eye and, for a few pence, a ready tongue.

There's no way to cheat a sensualist like me, somebody who can die laughing for hours over the pattern of the carpet in a hotel lobby.

I resolved to move just a little bit more slowly through the world, to look around myself with greater care, and to try to remain conscious of all that was going on around me at all times.

Carefully I opened my eyes and looked at him again. All his natural gifts were there in a blaze of light: the delicate but strong limbs, large sober brown eyes, and his mouth that for all the irony and sarcasm that could come out of it was childlike and ready to be kissed.

But there was something strange about her that made me think she was somebody. I don't mean her poise, the cool manner in which she stood with arms folded just watching all the goings on at the book party. Kids inherit that poise. It's their enemy, the way ignorance was the enemy of my generation.

What have you seen with your eyes? asked the old woman. What have you seen that you knew should not be there?

Sometimes you need to be forced to study what's right in front of you.

We are witnesses with both too much and too little feeling.

with no tribute whatsoever to the human habit of disguising the stare.

I saw him when he came through the front doors.

THE TALAMASCA We watch And we are always here.

You stare at anything long enough and suddenly it looks monstrous." She had in fact turned away from him to stare at the bowl of flowers in the middle of the table. Old tea roses, falling to pieces amid the baby's breath and fern and purple zinnias. And they did look absolutely alien, these things, the way that insects always do, and sort of horrible! What were these things, really?

Nem tehetünk egyebet - gondolta magában -, mint küzdünk az életben maradásért, megÅ'rizzük ép elménket, és tanúként szemlélve a világot abban reménykedünk, hogy ez az egész valahogy értelmet nyer.

thrown at you in every drugstore, the public has no accurate memory of anything; every social problem is observed in relation to 'norms' which in fact never existed, people fancy themselves 'deprived' of luxuries and peace and quiet which in fact were never common to any people anywhere at all.

It struck me how different were his green eyes from hers. His eyes were darker. There was no distinct circle of blackness around the irises and, indeed, the pupils did not stand out so clearly. Nevertheless they were beautiful eyes.

He appeared to be listening, but he said nothing. His youthful face was deceiving, but his violet eyes were truly wonderful.