Observation Quotes

When general observations are drawn from so many particulars as to become certain and indisputable, these are jewels of knowledge.

Those who have heard me speak from time to time know that quite often I cite the observation of that great American author, Mark Twain, who said, history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.

Dance has been transformed from an involuntary motor discharge, a ceremonial rite, into a work of art, conscious of, intended for, observation.

Swift defined observation to be an old man's memory.

As the prerogative of Natural Science is to cultivate a taste for observation, so that of Mathematics is, almost from the starting point, to stimulate the faculty of invention.

My paintings and comedy have a lot in common. They are both improvisations based on observation.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

Much 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.

It is a common observation, that the more solicitous any people are about dress, the more effeminate they are.

It is through observation and perception of atmosphere that he [the artist] can register the feeling that he wishes his painting to give out.

In the end, color combinations come down to our personal preferences, which we must discover through observation and experiment.

Rhetoric and dialectics can't change what I have learned from observation and experience.

Look slowly and hard at something subtle and small.

[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)

But I have been watching the crows since childhood. I loved the colour on its face. It can count up to seven – number seven it can count. They have made an observation. They are very clever birds.

The overly-verbal artist is led by his understanding of things--rather than by direct observation of things as they are.

Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.

The absolutist parades his good solid grounding in observation, reason, objectivity, truth and fact; the relativist sees only fetishes.

What an argument in favor of social connections is the observation that by communicating our grief we have less, and by communicating our pleasure we have more.

Observations indicate that the universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate. It will expand forever, getting emptier and darker.

Talents of the novelist: ... observation of character, analysis of emotion, people's feelings, personal relations.

Redundancy of language is never found with deep reflection. Verbiage may indicate observation, but not thinking. He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts.

The writer has three sources: imagination, observation, and experience

I cannot resist making the observation that some people use statistics as a drunk uses a lamppost - more to lean on than for illumination.

Modern science is predicated on "truths" verified through accurate observation and measurements of physical world phenomena.

One finds the truth by making a hypothesis and comparing observations with the hypothesis.

The observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy, and meets us at every turn, in spite of our endeavours to elude or avoid it.

For it may safely be said, not that the habit of ready and correct observation will by itself make us useful nurses, but that without it we shall be useless with all our devotion.

Criticism is not construction, it is observation.

I'm not an expert on Islam, but I think there are lots of noble religions whose basic principles could stand considerably more observation in the world of business.

A rocket is an experiment; a star is an observation.

A man whose extraordinary reputation thus lifts him up to the notice and observation of mankind, draws a multitude of eyes upon him, that will narrowly inspect every part of him.

As in the experimental sciences, truth cannot be distinguished from error as long as firm principles have not been established through the rigorous observation of facts.

Open up a few corpses: you will dissipate at once the darkness that observation alone could not dissipate.

You have to unzip your heart before you unzip your pants.

An independant reality in the ordinary physical sense can neither be ascribed to the phenomenon nor to the agencies of observation.

There are few defects in our nature so glaring as not to be veiled from observation by politeness and good-breeding.

I look at everything. God gave me eyes and I look at women and men and subway excavations and moving pictures and the little flowers of the field. I casually inspect the universe.

Her heart was broken perhaps, but it was a small inexpensive organ of local manufacture. In a wider and grander way she felt things had been simplified.

Let observation with extended observation observe extensively.

For it is a matter of daily observation that people take the greatest pleasure in that which satisfies their vanity; and vanity cannot be satisfied without comparison with others.

[Reinhold] Niebuhr endorsed G.K.Chesterton’s observation that tolerance is the attitude of those who do not believe in anything.

Obervation is a passive science, experimentation is an active science.

In the philosophic sense, observation shows and experiment teaches.

Averages ... seduce us away from minute observation.

He is a truly virtuous man who wishes always to be open to the observation of honest men.

Observation is the most enduring of the pleasures of life.

The idea that the universe is running down comes from a simple observation about machines. Every machine consumes more energy than it renders.

Knowledge is observation and is given to those who would look.

Everyone has a bad hair day; the trick is not to have one on picture day.