Observers Quotes - Page 21

• I'm an observer in life, not a participant. That's why I'm a documentarian who looks through a camera. I'm not a touchy-feely person; I'm not a seminar person.

  Joe Berlinger

  Cameras, Looks, Persons

  Source: povmagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The thing is I never want to be an observer, it's only in retrospect that I wish I had observed.

  Mary Tyler Moore

  Wish, Want, Retrospect

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Growing up I had amazing parents who really let me be creative and free. I was the youngest of three by six years, the child who was the outsider and observer. When I went off to Boston to act, I was very young - 10. And my parents didn't fear that. They had the respect to let me make my choices.

  Julie Taymor

  Children, Growing Up, Boston

  4 Copy quote

• Imagine an extrahuman observer looking at us. Such an extrahuman observer would be struck precisely by the uniformity of human languages, by the very slight variation from one language to another, and by the remarkable respects in which all languages are the same. And then he would notice we do not pay any attention to that because for the purpose of human life it is quite natural and appropriate just to take for granted everything that is common. We don't concern ourselves with that, all we worry about are differences.

  Noam Chomsky

  Differences, Worry, Would Be

  Source: chomsky.info

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Let's imagine again an observer looking at us without any preconceptions. I think he would be struck by the fact that although human beings have the capacity to develop scientific knowledge, it must be a very limited capacity because it is only done in very narrow and specific domains.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Would Be, Done

  Source: chomsky.info

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Men are the ones who often juggle back and forth for power. It is the women who bring humanity to the table - an understanding that beyond the jobs that men are fighting for, there are people out there really waiting for you to do something for life to go on. The only way all of this can happen effectively is if women are at the table as active participants, not as silent observers.

  Leymah Gbowee

  Jobs, Fighting, Men

  Source: progressive.org

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• American press, like the press in many countries, acts like a cheerleader to our government rather than a critical observer. This is especially true, when it comes to foreign interventions. That means that when government leaders conclude that intervention in a foreign country is justified, the press rarely criticizes it. In fact, the press has been an enthusiastic cheerleader for many of our foreign interventions.

  Stephen Kinzer

  Country, Mean, Government

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Among the authorities it is generally agreed that the Earth is at rest in the middle of the universe, and they regard it as inconceivable and even ridiculous to hold the opposite opinion. However, if we consider it more closely the question will be seen to be still unsettled, and so decidedly not to be despised. For every apparent change in respect of position is due to motion of the object observed, or of the observer, or indeed to an unequal change of both.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Science, Opposites, Earth

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1976). “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”, David & Charles Publishers

  83 Copy quote

  Show source

• The close and thoughtful observer more and more learns to recognize his limitations. He realizes that with the steady growth of knowledge more and more new problems keep on emerging.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Learning, Thoughtful, Growth

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1963). “Goethe's world view: presented in his reflections and maxims”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Doesn't the theory of relativity concern literature too? In our world there is no longer any room for the privileged observer, as there is none for the observer of the universe - we are all within.

  Nina Berberova

  Our World, Rooms, Literature

  4 Copy quote

• You cant be a casual observer of something humorous - you have to engage, you have to find it funny for the relationship between actor and audience to work.

  Brendan Coyle

  Humorous, Actors, Casual

  4 Copy quote