Observation Quotes - Page 4

• There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge... observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.

  Denis Diderot

  Knowledge, Mean, Reflection

  Denis Diderot (1966). “Selected Writings”, New York : Macmillan

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• Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?' To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.' The dog did nothing in the night-time.' That was the curious incident,' remarked Sherlock Holmes.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Dog, Night, Wish

  "Silver Blaze" (1892)

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• "I see nobody on the road," said Alice. "I only wish I had such eyes," the King remarked in a fretful tone. "To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people, by this light."

  Lewis Carroll

  Kings, Real, Distance

  Lewis Carroll (1896). “Through the Looking-glass: And what Alice Found There”, p.53, PDFreeBooks.org

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• I made a promise to keep a watch over myself, to remain master of myself, so that I might become a sure observer.

  Paul Gauguin

  Promise, Watches, Might

  Paul Gauguin (2012). “Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal”, p.31, Courier Corporation

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

  Robert Genn

  Artist, Understanding, Direct

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• We must trust to nothing but facts: These are presented to us by Nature, and cannot deceive. We ought, in every instance, to submit our reasoning to the test of experiment, and never to search for truth but by the natural road of experiment and observation.

  Antoine Lavoisier

  Nature, Science, Deception

  1789 Traiteele mentaire de la chimie ('Elements of Chemistr y', translated by Robert Kerr).

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• There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.

  Francis Bacon

  Hurt, Health, Men

  Francis Bacon, Brian Vickers (1999). “The Essays Or Counsels, Civil and Moral”, p.138, Oxford University Press, USA

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• To behold, is not necessary to observe, and the power of comparing and combining is only to be obtained by education. It is much to be regretted that habits of exact observation are not cultivated in our schools; to this deficiency may be traced much of the fallacious reasoning, the false philosophy which prevails.

  Wilhelm von Humboldt

  Philosophy, School, May

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• The attention of a traveller, should be particularly turned, in the first place, to the various works of Nature, to mark the distinctions of the climates he may explore, and to offer such useful observations on the different productions as may occur.

  William Bartram

  Travel, Journey, May

  William Bartram (1792). “Travels Through North and South Carolina: Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges Or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. ... Embellished with Copper-plates”, p.8

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• I will not comment on or confirm what are alleged to be stolen State Department cables. But I can say that the United States deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential, including private discussions between counterparts or our diplomats' personal assessments and observations.

  Hillary Clinton

  Regret, Assessment, United States

  Presser on Wikileaks Release of Confidential Documents, delivered 29 November 2010, Treaty Room, Washington, D.C.

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• A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.

  Frederick Douglass

  Patriotic, Reflection, Moral Growth

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.565, Chicago Review Press

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• The Tweets that I have written that are most popular are the ones that are the kind of universal girly concerns and observations.

  Mindy Kaling

  Girly, Kind, Tweet

  "Interview: Mindy Kaling Talks Sex In Sweet Valley (And Other Concerns)". Interview with Sara Benincasa, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 21, 2011.

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• I'm really more prolific than most stand-ups. My act changes. I do fold in new experiences, new observations, whatever you want to call it.

  Paula Poundstone

  New Experiences, Want, Folds

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• The telephone, which interrupts the most serious conversations and cuts short the most weighty observations, has a romance of its own.

  Virginia Woolf

  Romantic, Cutting, Romance

  Virginia Woolf (2013). “The Common Reader”, p.187, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Evey 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 Moore

  Men, Asking, Paradox

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• About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorise; and I well remember some one saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!

  Charles Darwin

  Science, Men, Views

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.681, Broadview Press

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• My observation is that women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership.

  James Dobson

  Leadership, Husband, Waiting

  James C. Dobson (2014). “Straight Talk to Men: Timeless Principles for Leading Your Family”, p.165, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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• The service of philosophy, of speculative culture, towards the human spirit, is to rouse, to startle it to a life of constant and eager observation.

  Walter Pater

  Philosophy, Culture, Spirit

  Walter Pater (2013). “The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry”, p.154, Courier Corporation

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• To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us.

  Studs Terkel

  Survival, Triumph, Enough

  Studs Terkel (2013). “The Studs Terkel Reader: My American Century”, p.262, The New Press

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• The lower classes of men, though they do not think it worthwhile to record what they perceive, nevertheless perceive everything that is worth noting; the difference between them and a man of learning often consists in nothing more than the latter's facility for expression.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Thinking, Men, Expression

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• Images have been reproached for being a way of watching suffering at a distance, as if there were some other way of watching.

  Susan Sontag

  Distance, Suffering, Way

  Susan Sontag (2013). “Regarding the Pain of Others”, p.117, Macmillan

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• The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Friendship, Communication, Men

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• When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  "Appropriate Technology: A Focus for the Nineties". Book by Robert William Stevens, 1991.

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• Subatomic particles have no meaning as isolated entities, but can only be understood as interconnections between the preparation of an experiment and the subsequent measurement.

  Fritjof Capra

  Science, Understanding, Preparation

  Fritjof Capra (2010). “The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism”, p.69, Shambhala Publications

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• My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty... it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.

  George Washington

  4th Of July, Two, Political

  George Washington (1836). “The writings of George Washington: being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes, and illustrations”, p.301

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