Obvious Things Quotes

• The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Life, World, Mystery Novels

  Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901).

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• Mathematics consists in proving the most obvious thing in the least obvious way.

  George Polya

  Knowledge, Math, Way

  George Pólya (1968). “Mathematical discovery: on understanding, learning, and teaching problem solving”

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• When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something.

  Steve Jobs

  Creativity, Artist, Best Job

  Steve Jobs (0101). “Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs”, p.35, Prabhat Prakashan

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• We need men who can dream of things that never were.

  John F. Kennedy

  Motivational, Dream, Inspiration

  Address Before the Irish Parliament, delivered 28 June 1963, Dublin, Ireland

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• Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things.

  Steve Jobs

  Inspirational, Creativity, Artist

  "Steve Jobs: seven lessons from Apple's founder" by Frédéric Filloux, www.theguardian.com. October 10, 2011.

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• Love is an open secret, the most obvious thing in the world and the most hidden, with no why to how it keeps its mystery.

  Rumi

  Spiritual, Love Is, Secret

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• What is the relationship of the obvious things that we see around us to the things that we believe we understand within ourselves? This is the ancient alchemical formula: "as above, so below, as within, so without."

  Fred Alan Wolf

  Believe, Ancient, Formulas

  Source: www.edgemagazine.net

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• Science,' said Mr Anders Anders. 'Science, not magic. I told you before: when things are not as they appear to be, it's because they're actually simpler than you think them to be. Things are never as difficult and complicated as folk believe. You'd be surprised just how straightforward and obvious things really are. The secret is in knowing how to look at them the right way.

  Robert Rankin

  Believe, Thinking, Knowing

  Robert Rankin (2011). “The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse: Eddie Bear”, p.129, Hachette UK

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• Paris is a beautiful city to walk around in. And, you know, all the obvious things: I like the museums, I like the theater, I like the dance. And it's manageable. The food's good. I know a lot of interesting people here. I lived in Boston for 50 years or more. Wherever I am, I'm usually holed up most of the time in the editing room, and so, when I leave the editing room, even if I just take a walk, it's gorgeous. And I walk everywhere. I'm a victim of the seduction of Paris.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Beautiful, Museums, Editing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Keep it simple. Let's do the obvious thing -the common thing- but let's do it uncommonly well.

  Leo Burnett

  Simple, Common, Wells

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• If a movie makes it really big, they do the obvious thing, right? They make an amusement park ride out of it. ... The connection is obvious. You get off, "Man, that was just like the movie! Only the movie had a storyline and characters, and that was a little more like a roller coaster."

  Brian Regan

  Funny, Character, Men

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• But mark, madam, we live amongst riddles and mysteries--the most obvious things, which come in our way, have dark sides, which thequickest sight cannot penetrate into; and even the clearest and most exalted understandings amongst us find ourselves puzzled and at a loss in almost every cranny of nature's works.

  Laurence Sterne

  Knowledge, Loss, Dark

  Laurence Sterne (1847). “Works, Containing the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent: A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, Sermons, Letters and C”, p.185

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• People innately have lots of solutions. It sounds like an obvious thing, but everyone thinks that they can be prime minister; everyone thinks that they can do a better job.

  Mark Thomas

  Jobs, Thinking, People

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• What I found interesting writing a screenplay as opposed to writing a novel is not the obvious thing, which is having to pare everything down and find the kind of essence, the skeleton if you like, which can then be fleshed out by performance and cinematography.

  Salman Rushdie

  Writing, Skeletons, Essence

  "Salman Rushdie brings 'Midnight's Children' to big screen". Interview with Matt Carey, www.cnn.com. May 6, 2013.

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• People tell me this is obvious. But it's ok to be obvious. Knowing and doing are different. Many people know many obvious things they completely fail to do, despite their knowledge.

  Scott Berkun

  Knowing, People, Different

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• Everybody's got something to tell you. And most people have told me to do the obvious thing as far as my career goes. Which would have sent me tottering into the abyss.

  Robert Plant

  Careers, People, Abyss

  "The Survivors: Robert Plant". Interview with Chris Heath, www.gq.com. November 7, 2011.

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• There's often more than one correct thing. There's often more than one right thing. There's often more than one obvious thing.

  Larry Wall

  Obvious, Right Thing

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• I find that the interesting challenges, because there's obvious things where, you know, don't be unethical, don't be evil, you know, don't break the law, don't do immoral things, those are all straightforward and don't create ethical dilemmas. The thing that's interesting is when you actually have multiple interests at stake and you have to kind of navigate your way through it.

  Reid Hoffman

  Law, Evil, Interesting

  Source: bigthink.com

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• There are a few obvious consequences and perhaps one subtle possibility. One obvious thing is that, to stimulate the economy, President Obama has committed to creating millions of green jobs that will leave a legacy - much as Roosevelt's public works did during the new deal.

  Denis Hayes

  Jobs, Creating, President

  "The Rumpus Interview with Earth Day organiser Denis Hayes". Interview with Melissa Price, therumpus.net. April 22, 2009.

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• Obvious things like The Deer Hunter. After that happened, the scripts got better. Opportunities happened.

  Christopher Walken

  Opportunity, Hunters, Deer

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I had a life experience that most of my - that none of my friends had. I remember I became everybody's rabbi. Everybody who needed advice would talk to me, and it became an obvious thing.

  Jeff Ross

  Advice, Remember, Life Experience

  Source: www.npr.org

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• [Albert Camus] also says that nothing is true which forces exclusion. From that, you're obliged to accept contradictions if you don't want to reject certain obvious things about life, certain evidences. If you create a system, and you say 'here there is truth', in that kind of pathway [chemin], then you'll evacuate all the other pathways and you'll kill life. It's up to each individual.

  Catherine Camus

  Pathways, Want, Exclusion

  Source: www.spikemagazine.com

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• It's the obvious thing to say but artists want to be able to tell all kinds of stories and tear down every kind of wall, to look at ourselves and examine who we are and just get deeper insights into what makes us human beings. Anything that could possibly prevent that in our near future horrifies me to no end.

  Christian Slater

  Wall, Artist, Tears

  Source: www.esquire.com

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• I want to make sure to fix these obvious things - like keeping the box CLEAN! Another thing that might affect this [cats going outside the litter box] is if you put the litter box in a laundry room where people are walking by there all the time, the cat might feel kinda too exposed. When you gotta poop, you know, it takes a little longer. You want a little more privacy.

  Temple Grandin

  Cat, People, Littles

  "Interview with Dr. Temple Grandin" by Jenny Dean, www.floppycats.com. May 23, 2012.

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• Be nice to each other. Not a lot, but seems like the most obvious thing.

  Lenny Jacobson

  Nice, Seems, Being Nice

  "Actor Lenny Jacobson: On getting in the zone, vulnerability, and preferring chaos". Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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