Quotes about Observation

Have you ever noticed how many different silences there are, Gilbert? The silence of the woods . . . of the shore . . . of the meadows . . . of the night . . . of the summer afternoon. All different because all the undertones that thread them are different. I'm sure if I were totally blind and insensitive to heat and cold I could easily tell just where I was by the quality of the silence about me.

So far, the ordinary observer; an extraordinary observer might have seen that the chin was very pointed and pronounced; that the big eyes were full of spirit and vivacity; that the mouth was sweet-lipped and expressive; that the forehead was broad and full; in short, our discerning extraordinary observer might have concluded that no commonplace soul inhabited the body of this stray woman-child of whom shy Matthew Cuthbert was so ludicrously afraid.

Miss Barry, who was sitting behind them, leaned forward and poked Marilla in the back with her parasol.

Occasionally she looked at Anne, seemed on the point of saying something, then shook her head and buttoned up her mouth.

Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.

A simile committing suicide is always a depressing spectacle.

A village is a hive of glass, where nothing unobserved can pass.

The principle to be kept in mind is to know what we see rather than to see what we know.

The best cure for one's bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person.

What we see evidence for in others, we will attend to within, what others are silent about, we may stay blind to or experience only in shame.

It was C. S. Lewis who observed that there exists in every church something that sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. So we must strive very hard, by the grace of God to keep the church focused on the mission that Christ originally gave to it.

The most astonishing observation one makes today is that people surrender everything in the face of nothingness: their own judgment, their humanity, their neighbors. Where this fear is exploited without scruple, there are no limits to what can be achieved.[130]