Quotes About Observation

The woman next to me has no laces in her shoes and looks exhausted. She carries her belongings in a faded carrier bag. I cannot tell how old she is. Somewhere between forty and death.

I was once on a Tube train late at night when a young man sitting opposite pointed to his crotch and demanded, 'What do you think of that?' Thinking he might be showing me some interesting point in a book, I replied, 'I'm sorry, I can't see anything small without my specs.' He fled at the next station and it was only when he got up that I realised he hadn't been carrying a book at all.

Most people on the bus seem to have no interest in looking out of the window for inspiration. They are engrossed in their phones. People constantly checking their messages seems to me rather like endlessly opening the front door just in case an unexpected visitor has turned up.

I love to watch people. I don't need to be the center of attention. I don't like to suck the air out of a room because there's so much to be gained by just being quiet. I'm like a time release capsule. It may take me 12 hours to fully absorb and suddenly I'm releasing my crazy again.

People reveal as much by their silence as they do by what they say.

laugh uproariously. Dar and Aud looked back to see what

I WANT EVERYONE to understand that no book and no doctor is a substitute for one's own sensitive contemplation and careful observations. Books with their ready-made formulas have dulled our vision and slackened the mind. Living by other people's experiences, research, and opinions, we have lost our self-confidence and we fail to observe things for ourselves.

A POET IS SOMEONE who is very happy and very sad, who is quick to anger and who loves intensely, who feels strongly. Children are like that, too. A philosopher is someone who is very observant, who ponders and wants to know how things really are. Children are like that, too.

She was alone like a cat, like an owl, as if she walked unobserved, out of her human life.

Doors and windows opened along the street, and women poured out, appearing on apartment balconies and porches and spilling onto the sidewalk singing. It was now revealed that this was a Hispanic neighborhood. For a moment, Ruth thought she was the only white person and felt a shameful jolt of racial paranoia.

To Ben's eye, there were no apparent signs of wealth, though he wasn't sure what he'd expected. Fountains?

Tonight I've watched the moon and then the Pleiades go down The night is now half gone; youth goes; I am in bed alone

Wie mooi is, is mooi zolang je kijkt, wie mooi en goed is, zal mooi blijven.

She must not interfere in her children's lives, but neither could she look away, no matter how much trouble they made for themselves.

May I never miss a sunset or a rainbow because I am looking down.

Some men can only admire independent women at a distance.

I love watching amazing actors and actresses that you can't take your eyes off of because everything they are doing - even if it is just twiddling their thumbs or scratching their eye - it's just interesting.

He could offer only withness, but nothing else was asked.

Vola eyed him as she sawed a slice off a ham joint

and missed the seeing Charlie participate

She'd lived in the same house with this man and never once thought about his thighs in the last year.

I learned it's easier not to say anything at all. You mention something, even a throwaway comment, and it draws attention. People want to know more. It was easier to never mention it in the first place.

It was supposed to be an easy job. "Cake," Rick had said. Sammy Dovitz tossed his binoculars onto the passenger seat then shifted restlessly within the confines of the black KIA.

Or perhaps all those things you missed upon first glance mean much more than you could ever guess.