Quotes About Observation

If you travel fast, several weird things happen. One is that your inner time clock will appear to tick more slowly, as seen by all those who observe you. Your time "dilates.

Last I had kept count, there were fifty-six moons among the planets in the Solar System. Then I woke up one morning to learn that another dozen had been discovered around Saturn. After that incident, I decided to no longer keep track.

Ordered it with whipped cream, of course. When it arrived at the table, I saw no trace of the stuff. After I told the waiter that my cocoa had no whipped cream, he asserted I couldn't see it because it sank to the bottom. But whipped cream has low density, and floats on all liquids that humans consume. So I offered the waiter two possible explanations: either somebody forgot to add the whipped cream to my hot cocoa or the universal laws of physics were different in his restaurant.

You're a witness. You're always standing around watching what's happening, scribbling in your book what other people do. You have to get in the middle of it. You have to take sides. Make a contribution to the fight. Any fight. The one you believe in. Until you do, you'll never be a writer, Eugene.

Ma knew what was goin' on. She could tell if there was salt missin' from a pretzel.

Everybody seems to be here and a few more. But what I'm trying to find out is the name, status, and race of the blonde beauty out of the fairy-tale. She's dancing with Ralph Hazelton at the moment. Nice study in contrasts, that.

He looked around the crowded room. "The walls have ears." "Actually, they have termites. And no one here cares what we're talking about. Look, Mr. Macia, you have offered me two million dollars and it will not surprise you that I could use the money, but—

but every time I run into her in New York, she has a new guy, making me think she's had more fresh mounts than a Pony Express rider.

the rule is, If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's a duck.

A Congreve clock?' Captain Petersen was puzzled. 'It's a clock that keeps time by a steel ball running on a zig-zag track down an inclined plane,' Keith told him. 'Only it doesn't keep very good time. It takes thirty seconds for the ball to run down one way — then the plane tilts and it runs back again. It's quite fascinating to watch.

I stopped reading and stared round the room. There were the new curtains, the new shades on all the lamps, the deep new pile of the Indian carpet beneath my feet, the new loose cover of the chair that I was sitting in, the slightly different appearance of the wallpaper by the electric switch, the gleam of the new paint. I had not noticed any of them.

Stop talking. Can't you see I'm detecting?

Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.

For when you are on the spot, disorders are detected in their beginnings and remedies can be readily applied; but when you are at a distance, they are not heard of until they have gathered strength and the case is past cure.

Men judge more from appearances than reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration. Everyone sees your exterior, but few can discern what you have in your heart.

Just as artists who draw landscapes get down in the valley to study the mountains and go up to the mountains to look down on the valley, so one has to be a prince to get to know the character of a people and a man of the people to know the character of a prince.

The first opinion which one forms of a prince, and of his understanding, is by observing the men he has around him; and when they are capable and faithful he may always be considered wise, because he has known how to recognize the capable and to keep them faithful. But when they are otherwise one cannot form a good opinion of him, for the prime error which he made was in choosing them.

Men in general judge more with the eye than with the hand, because everyone can see, but few can feel. Everyone sees what you seem to be, but few feel what you are. – Constantine translation

From want of foresight men make changes which relishing well at first do not betray their hidden venom, as I have already observed respecting hectic fever. Nevertheless, the ruler is not truly wise who cannot discern evils before they develop themselves, and this is a faculty given to few.

Because, if one is on the spot, disorders are seen as they spring up, and one can quickly remedy them; but if one is not at hand, they are heard of only when they are great, and then one can no longer remedy them.

Men in general are as much affected by what a thing appears to be as by what it is, indeed they are frequently influenced more by appearances than by reality.

Porque así como aquellos que dibujan se colocan abajo, en el llano, para considerar la naturaleza de los montes y de los lugares elevados y, para considerar la de los bajos, se colocan en lo alto, sobre los montes, igualmente para conocer bien la naturaleza de los pueblos, es necesario ser príncipe, y para conocer bien la de los príncipes, es necesario ser del pueblo.

Machiavelli was undoubtedly a man of great observation, acuteness, and industry; noting with appreciative eye whatever passed before him, and with his supreme literary gift turning it to account in his enforced retirement from affairs.

The actions of a new prince are more narrowly observed than those of an hereditary one.