Popular quotes about Observation! Wisdom and inspiration are here!
Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening.
G. I. GurdjieffNatural history is a matter of observation; it is a harvest which you gather when and where you find it growing. Birds and squirrels and flowers are not always in season, but philosophy we have always with us. It is a crop which we can grow and reap at all times and in all places and it has its own value and brings its own satisfaction.
John Burroughs[Documentary photography] is unwittingly literary, because it is nothing other than an observation of contemporary life apprehended at the right moment by an artist capable of seizing it. (1928)
Pierre Mac OrlanThose who cannot themselves observe can at least acquire the observation of others.
Benjamin DisraeliMuch of my work in this period was concerned with exploring the logic of economic models, but also with attempting to reconcile the models with everyday observation.
Joseph StiglitzWe took the elevator back down from the first observation level of the Eiffel Tower and started walking in he direction of the Taj Mahal
D. J. MacHaleObservation is so wide awake, and facts are being so rapidly added to the sum of human experience, that it appears as if the theorizer would always be in arrears, and were doomed forever to arrive at imperfect conclusion; but the power to perceive a law is equally rare in all ages of the world, and depends but little on the number of facts observed.
Henry David ThoreauThe reason for you complaint lies, it seems to me, in the constraint which your intellect imposes upon your imagination. Here I will make an observation, and illustrate it by an allegory. Apparently, it is not good-and indeed it hinders the creative work of the mind-if the if the intellect examines too closely the ideas pouring in, as it were, at the gates.
Friedrich SchillerReading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree (for all forbid us to steal, murder, plunder, or bear false witness), and that we should not intermeddle with the particular dogmas in which all religions differ, and which are totally unconnected with morality.
Thomas JeffersonCertain issues in philosophy of science (having to do with observation and the definition of a theory's empirical import) had beenmisconstrued as issues in philosophy of logic and of language. With respect to modality, I hold the exact opposite: important philosophical problems concerning language have been misconstrued as relating to the content of science and the nature of the world. This is not at all new, but is the traditional nominalist line.
Bas van FraassenThere is no such thing as absolute truth and absolute falsehood. The scientific mind should never recognise the perfect truth or the perfect falsehood of any supposed theory or observation. It should carefully weigh the chances of truth and error and grade each in its proper position along the line joining absolute truth and absolute error.
Henry Augustus RowlandA maxim is a conclusion upon observation of matters of fact, and is merely speculative; a "principle" carries knowledge within itself, and is prospective.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeAn atom is a hierarchy of different states of information that define the statistical likelihood of finding a particle here or there at the time of observation.
Deepak ChopraObservation and experiment for gathering material, induction and deduction for elaborating it: these are are only good intellectual tools.
Francis BaconI cannot resist making the observation that some people use statistics as a drunk uses a lamppost - more to lean on than for illumination.
Alfred E. PerlmanThose writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.
Samuel JohnsonThe true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonPassing just lately over this lake, ... and examining this water next day, I found floating therein divers earthy particles, and some green streaks, spirally wound serpent-wise, and orderly arranged, after the manner of the copper or tin worms, which distillers use to cool their liquors as they distil over. The whole circumference of each of these streaks was about the thickness of a hair of one's head. ... all consisted of very small green globules joined together: and there were very many small green globules as well. [The earliest recorded observation of the common green alga Spyrogyra.]
Antonie van LeeuwenhoekWhen people endure a traumatic event, they are either defeated or made stronger. On Sept. 11, I told New Yorkers, "I want you to emerge stronger from this." My words were partially a hope and partially an observation that people in New York City handle big things better than little things. I could not be more proud of the way my city responded.
Rudy GiulianiIt's a great mistake, I think, to put children off with falsehoods and nonsense, when their growing powers of observation and discrimination excite in them a desire to know about things.
Anne Sullivan MacyI find, by close observation, that the mothers are the levers which move in education. The men talk about it . . . but the women work most for it.
Frances HarperIt is a commonplace observation that liberals believe in the perfectibility of man while conservatives believe in the endurance of original sin. Superficially, that would suggest that conservatives take a more understanding and indulgent view of individual lapses, while liberals take a more harshly judgmental one. In fact, we know, quite the opposite is the case.
William A. Henry IIICreativity has much to do with experience, observation and imagination, and if any one of those key elements is missing, it doesn't work.
Bob DylanThe training is a set of interpersonal interactions that lead to emotional and intellectual experiences that provide a circumstance and an intrument for self awareness, self observation and reflection on the circumstances of the subject trainee, both in his individual life and as a social being.
Humberto MaturanaIt is now possible to quantify people's levels of happiness pretty accurately by asking them, by observation, and by measuring electrical activity in the brain, in degrees from terrible pain to sublime joy.
Polly ToynbeePoets, we know, are terribly sensitive people, and in my observation one of the things they are most sensitive about is money.
Robert Penn WarrenThere is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.
Stephen HawkingI am convinced, by repeated observation, that marbles, lime-stones, chalks, marls, clays, sand, and almost all terrestrial substances, wherever situated, are full of shells and other spoils of the ocean.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de BuffonA man of the best parts and greatest learning, if he does not know the world by his own experience and observation, will be very absurd, and consequently very unwelcome in company. He may say very good things; but they will be probably so ill-timed, misplaced, or improperly addressed, that he had much better hold his tongue.
Lord ChesterfieldIt is a misfortune to pass at once from observation to conclusion, and to regard both as of equal value; but it befalls many a student.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThis, then, is what counts: a lightning reaction which has no further need of conscious observation. In this respect at least the pupil makes himself independent of all conscious purpose.
Eugen HerrigelAll ideas come about through some sort of observation. It sparks an attitude; some object or emotion causes a reaction in the other person.
Graham ChapmanWhat is science but the pursuit of the truth? What is Buddhism but 2500 years of observation as to the nature of mind?
Wade DavisThe observation of others is coloured by our inability to observe ourselves impartially. We can never be impartial about anything until we can be impartial about our own organism.
Alfred Richard OrageAt present, the novels which we owe to English ladies form no small part of the literary glory of our country. No class of works is more honorably distinguished for fine observation, by grace, by delicate wit, by pure moral feeling.
Thomas B. MacaulayI'm with the president nearly every day. We engage in complex conversations about some of the most weighty matters facing the world. I deliver to him this exquisite product that's been developed by my officers. He engages in a way that shows his understanding of the complexity. He asks really hard questions. He delivers policy outcomes based on the information that we provide him. My observation of the president is that, we deal in serious matters.
Mike PompeoAfter a quarter of a century of personal experience and professional observation, I have come to understand that peace of mind is the true goal of the considered life. I know now that the sum of all other possessions does not necessarily add up to peace of mind; on the other hand, I have seen this inner tranquility flourish without the material supports of property or even the buttress of physical health. Peace of mind can transform a cottage into a spacious manor hall; the want of it can make a regal residence an imprisoning shell.
Joshua L. LiebmanIn every place, where there is any thing worthy of observation, there should be a short printed directory for strangers.
James BoswellThe notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be believed only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called faith.
Robert Green IngersollEvey Hammond: Who are you? V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask. Evey Hammond: Well I can see that. V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is
Alan MooreI'm not very eloquent about things like this, but I think that writing and photography go together. I don't mean that they are related arts, because they're not. But the person doing it, I think, learns from both things about accuracy of the eye, about observation, and about sympathy toward what is in front of you... It's about honesty, or truth telling, and a way to find it in yourself, how to need it and learn from it.
Eudora WeltyBut by far the greatest hindrance and aberration of the human understanding proceeds from the dullness, incompetency, and deceptions of the senses; in that things which strike the sense outweigh things which do not immediately strike it, though they be more important. Hence it is that speculation commonly ceases where sight ceases; insomuch that of things invisible there is little or no observation.
Francis Bacon