Quotes About Observation

Surely it is time to examine into the meaning of words and the nature of things, and to arrive at simple facts, not received upon the dictum of learned authorities, but upon attentive personal observation of what is passing around us.

The stories are not autobiographical, but they're personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I've learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.

Sometimes I enjoy just photographing the surface because I think it can be as revealing as going to the heart of the matter.

Imagine how many aspects of nature we would miss if we lived on the surface of the sun. Without inventing refrigerators, we would only know gaseous matter and never observe liquids or solids, and miss the beauty of snowflakes.

As a novelist, you deepen your characters as you go, adding layers. As a reporter, you try to peel layers away: observing subjects enough to get beneath the surface, re-questioning a source to find the facts. But these processes aren't so different.

For several days in July of 2012, Greenland surface ice cover melted more than at any time in 30 years of satellite observation. During that month, an estimated 97% of the ice sheet thawed.

Once you learn to 'speak' money - which is what I felt I did through the research that led me to write 'Whoops!' - you start to see it at work all around you. It's like a language, a code written on the surface of things; it's in flow all around us, all the time.

After a test match it's very easy to make selections, once you've seen exactly how the surface is going to play.

I played a doctor on 'Chicago Hope' 15 years or so ago, and I did go and watch an open heart surgery.

Even the dullest bird or face becomes interesting when you give it a good look in the wild/flesh. The way the shadow drops across the cheek, the light hits an eyebrow, etc... there are many more angles, positions etc. than you can ever imagine. My heart always makes a little jump when I see things in birds or faces that surprise me.

Rich men's houses are seldom beautiful, rarely comfortable, and never original. It is a constant source of surprise to people of moderate means to observe how little a big fortune contributes to Beauty.

Everyone here says in a surprised manner that I have grown... they are so stupid and do not notice that I am standing up straighter!

I do say things possibly other people don't say. So I shouldn't be too surprised when they are picked up.

When I moved from Independiente to Atletico Madrid, I was only 18, and I found it hard to adapt. But what surprised me most about moving to England was how fast the game was. I like it, but it is so quick.

I wouldn't be surprised if I knocked Ricky Hatton out. It's something that people are going to read and think I'm ridiculous, but if you look beyond what you see with naked eye, every time he gets hit clean, he's hurt.

I felt the need to get back to painting and I thought the best way was to start drawing, so I enrolled in a life drawing class. I soon discovered that people made very interesting subjects and I am still surprised that I had never discovered it before.

I will interview bigwigs if I get the chance, but you are seldom surprised by people in power - you've got to get awfully damn close to get anything new.

It is difficult to predict technology more than 10 years out with any certitude, but what I observe is that change and innovation happens earlier and faster than we expect. We are constantly surprised at what technology can do.

It never surprises me how good Shaun is. Even the coaches are surprised by the things he does and I can understand why. He can strike the ball so hard, yet his legs are only about 12 inches long. But I've been watching him do things like that ever since we were kids. I know what he's capable of.

I've always been interested in animal behavior, and I keep reading about it because it's so surprising all the time - so many things are happening around us that we neglect to look at. Part of the passion I have for biology is based on this wonderment.

I can't remember how many years it's been since I last saw a David Parsons program or what I saw whenever it was, but that isn't surprising, since I can't really remember the first half of a David Parsons program while I'm watching the second half.

I never expected a camera was going to follow all of my moves, and that was surprising when I saw it for the first time.

Professional comedians, surprisingly, have a lack of humor. They're insensitive to the insanity of our times.

The eyes of dogs are surprisingly humanlike.