Quotes About Observation

He reflected briefly that someone up there was watching over him. 'Thanks a lot,' he said bitterly.

Swing, though, started in the wrong place. He didn't look around, and watch and learn, and then say, 'This is how people are, how do we deal with it?' No, he sat and thought: This is how the people ought to be, how do we change them?' And that was a good enough thought for a priest but not for a copper, because Swing's patient, pedantic way of operating had turned policing on its head.

Lawn looked down at his patient. In the words of the philosopher Sceptum, the founder of my profession: am I going to get paid for this?

You don't have to chase around after creatures, Pismire had said. You watch them for long enough, and then you'll find the place to wait and they'll come to you. There's nearly always a better way of doing something.

Vetinari gave him a look that did not actually employ a raised eyebrow but which implied that one might be forthcoming if the recipient of the look pushed his luck.

The footprints go this way, said Cuddy, and then they return. But the ones coming back aren't so deep as the ones going. You can see they're later ones because they're over the top of the other ones. So he was heavier than he was coming back, yes? Right, said Detritus. So that means...? He lose weight?

She collected silence like other people collected strings. But she had a way of saying nothing that said it all.

In a certain light and from a carefully chosen angle, Magrat was not unattractive.

But if it is true that the act of observing changes the thing which is observed (because of Quantum), it's even more true that it changes the observer.

She is standing just behind you. Just behind your right shoulder. In the silence of the woods, Polly turned. I can't see her, she said. I am happy for you, said Wazzer, handing her the empty mug. But I didn't see anything, said Polly. No, said Wazzer. But you turned around...

Vimes' glare ran from face to face, causing most of the squad to do an immediate impression of the Floorboard and Ceiling Inspectors Synchronised Observation Team.

Lord Vetinari lifted an eyebrow with the care of one who, having found a piece of caterpillar in his salad, raises the rest of the lettuce.

Captain Quirke looked around the Watch room with the air of one who was doing the scenery a favour by looking at it.

Agnes felt that beauty was even more likely to be in the eye of the beholder if the feet of the beholder were on something solid. At ten thousand feet up, the eye of the beholder tends to water.

Wizards had always known that the act of observation changed the thing that was observed, and sometimes forgot that it also changed the observer too.

The man gave Dodger a cursory glance that had quite a lot of curse in it.

Vimes was hazy on religion. He attended Watch funerals and went to such religious events as the proper fulfilling of the office of Commander entailed, but as for the rest . . . well, you saw things sometimes that made it impossible to believe not only in gods, but also in common humanity and your own eyes.

The universe required everything to be observed, lest it cease to exist.

I've never heard of you and I know this city like the back of my hand,' said Vimes. 'Right. And how often do you look at the back of your hand Mr Vimes?…

Reality so often fails when it comes to small, satisfying details, she thought.

You see a wile, you thwart. Am I right?

The public thinks big, sensible, measured thoughts while people run around doing silly things

People look down on stuff like geography and meteorology, and not only because they're standing on one and being soaked by the other.

Sufficiently close examination changes the thing being observed.