Quotes About Observation

You: a woman too old for passive contemplation caught staring out a window at bird-of-paradise spikes jewelled with rain, across an alley

Now is just what's happening – minus everything you think.

Abiding means letting everything be as it already is – no matter what it is. If you're feeling good, let that be as it is. If you're feeling bad, let that be as it is. No matter what your emotional, physical, or mental state, let it be as it is and don't wish it to be otherwise. If you want it to be different from what it is, you're not abiding; you're picking and choosing and trying to control your experience. (p. 29)

Whatever thoughts you have about yourself aren't who and what you are. There is something more primary that is watching the thoughts.

Nor does night conceal men's deeds of ill, but whatsoe'er thou dost, think that some God beholds it.

Justice, voiceless, unseen, seeth thee when thou sleepest and when thou goest forth and when thou liest down. Continually doth she attend thee, now aslant thy course, now at a later time.

The fly sat upon the axel-tree of the chariot-wheel and said, What a dust do I raise!

Better to be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.

A camel never sees its own hump.

It is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.

If you are to be Hercule Poirot, you must think of everything.

Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them. [Witness for the Prosecution, also published in The Hound of Death and Other Stories.]

I often wonder why the whole world is so prone to generalise. Generalisations are seldom if ever true and are usually utterly inaccurate.

Hercule Poirot: I am an imbecile. I see only half of the picture. Miss Lemon: I don't even see that.

There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.

What's wrong with my proposition?" Poirot rose. "If you will forgive me for being personal-I do not like your face, M. Ratchett.

At the small table, sitting very upright, was one of the ugliest old ladies he had ever seen. It was an ugliness of distinction - it fascinated rather than repelled.

Women observe subconsciously a thousand little details, without knowing that they are doing so. Their subconscious mind adds these little things together—and they call the result intuition.

Two people rarely see the same thing.

I like to see an angry Englishman," said Poirot. "They are very amusing. The more emotional they feel the less command they have of language.

One of the oddest things in life, as we all know, is the way that when you have heard a thing mentioned, within twenty-four hours you nearly always come across it again.

I am not one to rely upon the expert procedure. It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash.

Curious thing, rooms. Tell you quite a lot about the people who live in them.

Sitting here with one's knitting, one just sees the facts. -"The Blood-Stained Pavement