Observation Quotes - Page 7

• Science starts with preconception, with the common culture, and with common sense. It moves on to observation, is marked by the discovery of paradox, and is then concerned with the correction of preconception. It moves then to use these corrections for the designing of further observation and for more refined experiment. And as it moves along this course the nature of the evidence and experience that nourish it becomes more and more unfamiliar; it is not just the language that is strange [to common culture].

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Moving, Science, Discovery

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• I can conceive few human states more enviable than that of the man to whom, panting in the foul laboratory, or watching for his life under the tropic forest, Isis shall for a moment lift her sacred veil, and show him, once and for ever, the thing he dreamed not of; some law, or even mere hint of a law, explaining one fact; but explaining with it a thousand more, connecting them all with each other and with the mighty whole, till order and meaning shoots through some old Chaos of scattered observations.

  Charles Kingsley

  Science, Men, Isis

  Charles Kingsley (1873). “Selections from Some of the Writings of the Rev. C. Kingsley, M.A.”, p.336

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• On the most usual assumption, the universe is homogeneous on the large scale, i.e. down to regions containing each an appreciable number of nebulae. The homogeneity assumption may then be put in the form: An observer situated in a nebula and moving with the nebula will observe the same properties of the universe as any other similarly situated observer at any time.

  Hermann Bondi

  Moving, Science, Numbers

  "Review of Cosmology," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, p. 107-8, 1948.

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• It is a little out of touch to presume that someone wants to follow your every observation and insight over the course of hundreds of pages without any sort of payoff. That's why writing isn't a one-way street. You have to give something back: an interesting plot, a surprise, a laugh, a moment of tenderness, a mystery for the reader to piece together.

  Christopher Bollen

  Writing, Giving, Laughing

  "'Morrissey's hair, bongs made of apples, MTV's 120 Minutes': Inside this month's hottest new books". Interview with Teddy Wayne, www.salon.com. May 20, 2015.

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• In the same way that Shakespeare was writing very much for his time, he was also unearthing observations that would last for generations beyond him.

  Alexis Denisof

  Writing, Generations, Way

  Source: collider.com

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• The imagination acquires by custom a certain involuntary, unconscious power of observation and comparison, correcting its own mistakes, and arriving at precision of judgment, just as the outward eye is disciplined to compare, adjust, estimate, measure, the objects reflected on the back of its retina.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Mistake, Eye, Imagination

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• While those whom devotion to abstract discussions has rendered unobservant of the facts are too ready to dogmatize on the basis of a few observations.

  Aristotle

  Facts, Devotion, Abstract

  On Generation and Corruption Book I, Chapter II

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• Persons without education certainly do not want either acuteness or strength of mind in what concerns themselves, or in things immediately within their observation; but they have no power of abstraction, no general standard of taste, or scale of opinion. They see their objects always near, and never in the horizon. Hence arises that egotism which has been remarked as the characteristic of self-taught men.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Self, Mind

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.175, Delphi Classics

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• Let observation with extensive view, Survey mankind from China to Peru; Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, And watch the busy scenes of crowded life.

  Samuel Johnson

  Travel, Views, Toil

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.548

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• The essential fault of surrealism is that it invents without discovering. To make a clam play an accordion is to invent not to discover. The observation of the unconscious, so far as it can be observed, should reveal things of which we have previously been unconscious, not the familiar things of which we have been conscious plus imagination.

  Wallace Stevens

  Play, Imagination, Essentials

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.259, Vintage

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• I get quiet joy from the observation of anyone who does his job well.

  William Feather

  Jobs, Joy, Doe

  William Feather (1949). “The Business of Life”

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• It is surely a matter of common observation that a man who knows no one thing intimately has no views worth hearing on things in general.

  Charles Horton Cooley

  Men, Views, Matter

  Charles Horton Cooley (1992). “Human Nature and the Social Order”, p.150, Transaction Publishers

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• It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn. The true object of juvenile education, is to provide, against the age of five and twenty, a mind well regulated, active, and prepared to learn. Whatever will inspire habits of industry and observation, will sufficiently answer this purpose.

  William Godwin

  Children, Inspire, Mind

  William Godwin (1797). “The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners, and Literature. In a Series of Essays”, p.78

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• But when reflexion begins to play upon these objects... like some trick of magic each object is loosed into a group of impressions - colour, odour, texture... And if we continue to dwell in thought on this world... the whole scope of observation is dwarfed into the narrow chamber of the individual mind.

  Walter Pater

  Play, Mind, Magic

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• The soul is a fire that darts its rays through all the senses; it is in this fire that existence consists; all the observations and all the efforts of philosophers ought to turn towards this ME, the centre and moving power of our sentiments and our ideas.

  Madame de Stael

  Moving, Fire, Ideas

  "Germany" by Madame de Stael, Part III, Chapter II, 1813.

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• Our social relationships are limited, most of the time, to gossip and criticizing people's behavior. This observation slowly pushed me to isolate from the so-called social life. My days pass by in solitude.

  Ingmar Bergman

  People, Gossip, Solitude

  "Fictional character: Dr. Eberhard Isak Borg". "Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries)", December 26, 1957.

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• A bachelor May thrive by observation on a little, A single life's no burthen: but to draw In yokes is chargeable, and will require A double maintenance.

  John Ford

  Single Life, Maintenance, Yoke

  John Ford, Alexander Dyce, William Gifford (1965). “Love's sacrifice. Perkin Warbeck. The fancies chaste and noble”

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• The greater part of our daily actions are the result of hidden motives which escape our observation.

  Gustave Le Bon

  Motivation, Action, Results

  Gustave Le Bon (2013). “The Crowd”, p.17, Simon and Schuster

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• The only way I could work properly was by using the absolute maximum of observation and concentration that I could possible muster.

  Lucian Freud

  Way, Concentration, Maximum

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• Intellect begins with the observation of nature, proceeds to memorize and classify the facts thus observed, and by logical deduction builds up that edifice of knowledge properly called science… But admittedly we also know by feeling, and we can combine the two faculties, and present knowledge in the guise of art.

  Herbert Read

  Art, Two, Feelings

  Herbert Read (1963). “Selected Writings: Poetry and Criticism”

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• Because of their very nature, science and logical thinking can never decide what is possible or impossible. Their only function is to explain what has been ascertained by experience and observation.

  Rudolf Steiner

  Thinking, Impossible, Logical

  Rudolf Steiner (2006). “Cosmic Memory”, p.36, SteinerBooks

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• It will afford me unfeigned satisfaction if my kingdom can add its quota toward the successful accomplishment of the most important astronomical observation of the present century and assist, however humbly, the enlightened nations of the earth in these costly enterprises .

  Kalakaua

  Successful, Accomplishment, Important

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• It has been said that self-respect is the gate of heaven, and the most cursory observation shows that a degree of reserve adds vastly to the latent force of character.

  Henry Theodore Tuckerman

  Character, Self, Heaven

  Henry Theodore Tuckerman (1850). “The optimist”, p.124

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• LIFE is that existence that is given to man to live for a purpose, to live to his own satisfaction and pleasure, providing he forgets not the God who created him and who expects a spiritual obedience and observation of the moral laws that He has inspired.

  Marcus Garvey

  Spiritual, Inspirational Life, Men

  Marcus Garvey (2015). “Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey”, p.6, Ravenio Books

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• Faith I have, in myself, in humanity, in the worthwhileness of the pursuits in entertainment for the masses. But wide awake, not blind faith, moves me. My operations are based on experience, thoughtful observation and warm fellowship with my neighbors at home and around the world.

  Walt Disney

  Dream, Moving, Home

  "The Gospel According to Disney : Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust". Book by Mark I. Pinsky, 2004.

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