| "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 |
| "There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language." »William Osler |
| "For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is the supreme Court of Appeal. It does not follow that every item which we confidently accept as physical knowledge has actually been certified by the Court our confidence is that it would be certified by the Court if it were submitted. But it does follow that every item of physical knowledge is of a form which might be submitted to the Court. It must be such that we can specify (although it may be impracticable to carry out) an observational procedure which would decide whether it is true or not. Clearly a statement cannot be tested by observation unless it is an assertion about the results of observation. Every item of physical knowledge must therefore be an assertion of what has been or would be the result of carrying out a specified observational procedure." »Sir Arthur Eddington |
| "Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature." »Cicero |
| "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." »George Bernard Shaw |
| "In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind." »Louis Pasteur |
| "It is my observation that being beaten is often a temporary condition, that giving up is what makes it permanent." »Marilyn vos Savant |
| "To linger in the observation of things other than the self implies a profound conviction of their worth." »Charles-Damian Boulogne |
| "Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life." »Marcus Aelius Aurelius |
| "Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common." »Denis Diderot |
| "The observation of others is coloured by our inability to observe ourselves impartially. We can never be impartial about anything until we can be impartial about our own organism." »A. R. Orage |
| "Hollywood is a place where they place you under contract instead of under observation." »Walter Winchell |
| "There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it." »Samuel Johnson |
| "Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others." »Edward Abbey |
| "From my close observation of writers...they fall into two groups 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review." »Isaac Asimov |
| New: We also know Zip Codes FYI! |
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