Observation Quotes

• Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Life, Science, Power

  "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius, Book III, (11), (c. 161 - 180 AD).

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• People who get into animation tend to be kids. We don't have to grow up. But also, animators are great observers, and there's this childlike wonder and interest in the world, the observation of little things that happen in life.

  John Lasseter

  Growing Up, Kids, People

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• Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.

  Gao Xingjian

  Yield, Literature, Starting

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• Recalibration of the mind means clearing our perceptions and recovering our capacity for pure observation.

  Ilchi Lee

  Mean, Mind, Perception

  FaceBook post by Ilchi Lee from Dec 07, 2013

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• I thought of the analyst Winnicott's observation: 'It is a joy to be hidden but disaster not to be found'.

  Susie Orbach

  Joy, Disaster, Analysts

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• Vipassana meditation is an ongoing creative purification process. Observation of the moment-to-moment experience cleanses the mental layers, one after another.

  Amit Ray

  Creative, Meditation, Ongoing

  "Yoga and Vipassana: An Integrated Life Style". Book by Amit Ray, May 29, 2012.

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• I want the brain to intervene between the observation and the mark.

  Euan Uglow

  Brain, Want, Mark

  Catherine Lampert, Richard Kendall, Euan Uglow (2007). “Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings : Catalogue Raisonné”, p.52, Yale University Press

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• But what is of great importance to me is observation of the movement of colors.

  Robert Delaunay

  Color, Movement, Importance

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• Bad writing is more than a matter of (expletive deleted) syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.

  Stephen King

  Writing, People, Syntax

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• Because God is perfect, his handiwork functions in accord with immutable principles. By the full use of our God-given powers of reason and observation, it ought to be possible to discover these principles.
  
  These were the crucial ideas that explain why science arose in Christian Europe and no where else.

  Rodney Stark

  Christian, Europe, Ideas

  Rodney Stark (2007). “The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success”, p.23, Random House

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• The ordinary method of education is to imprint ideas and opinions, in the strict sense of the word, prejudices, on the mind of the child, before it has had any but a very few particular observations. It is thus that he afterwards comes to view the world and gather experience through the medium of those ready-made ideas, rather than to let his ideas be formed for him out of his own experience of life, as they ought to be.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Children, Views, Ideas

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2007). “Studies in Pessimism”, p.56, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Observation is like a muscle. It grows stronger with use and atrophies without use. Exercise your observation muscle and you will become a more powerful decoder of the world around you.

  Joe Navarro

  Powerful, Exercise, Stronger

  Joe Navarro, Marvin Karlins (2009). “What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People”, p.9, Harper Collins

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• To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

  Marilyn vos Savant

  Inspirational, Leadership, Wise

  "Courage: the heart and spirit of every woman : reclaiming the forgotten virtue". Book by Sandra Ford Walston, 2001.

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

  William Faulkner

  Imagination, Three, Source

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• If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

  Robert Baden-Powell

  Inspirational, Listening, Marketing

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• It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

  Henry Ford

  Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring

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• Observation, not old age, brings wisdom.

  Publilius Syrus

  Wisdom, Age, Old Age

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• It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit of life.

  Samuel Smiles

  Art, Perspective, Secret

  Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.100

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• A love of flowers would beget early rising, industry, habits of close observation, and of reading. It would incline the mind to notice natural phenomena, and to reason upon them. It would occupy the mind with pure thoughts, and inspire a sweet and gentle enthusiasm; maintain simplicity of taste; and ... unfold in the heart an enlarged, unstraightened, ardent piety.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Education, Sweet, Reading

  Henry Ward Beecher (1859). “Plain and Pleasant Talk about Fruits, Flowers and Farming”, p.120

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• People's minds are changed through observation and not through argument.

  Will Rogers

  Business, People, Mind

  Will Rogers, Bryan B. Sterling, Frances N. Sterling (1993). “Will Rogers' World: America's Foremost Political Humorist Comments on the Twenties and Thirties--and Eighties and Nineties”, p.45, Rowman & Littlefield

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  There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

  Will Rogers

  Funny, Reading, Learning

  "The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers". "Friars Club Bible of Jokes, Pokes, Roasts, and Toasts". Book by Nina Colman, p. 316, 2001.

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• But when we observe, we are forced to pay attention. We have to move from passive absorption to active awareness. We have to engage.

  Maria Konnikova

  Moving, Attention, Pay

  Maria Konnikova (2013). “Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes”, p.9, Canongate Books

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• Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking.

  Wallace Stevens

  Science, Thinking, Accuracy

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.240, Vintage

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• Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

  Gautama Buddha

  Buddhist, Atheist, Believe

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• The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation and supervision.

  Bruce Barton

  Business, Teaching, Skills

  "Making Monitoring and Evaluation Systems Work: A Capacity Development Toolkit". Book by Marelize Görgens-Albino and Jody Zall Kusek, p. 347, 2009.

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